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The US Department of Justice has charged Keonne Rodriguez and William Lonergan Hill with laundering more than $ 100 million through the Samourai Whirlpool cryptocurrency mixer, which they operated for almost a decade.
Rodriguez was arrested earlier this week and will face trial in the United States in the coming days. Hill was also arrested in Portugal, and the U.S. government plans to request his extradition. Law enforcement agencies in Iceland and Portugal, as well as Europol, were involved in the operation to shut down Samourai.
The indictment alleges that between 2015 and February 2024, Rodriguez and Hill used the Samourai-owned cryptomixer Whirlpool to process more than $ 2 billion in illegal funds.
"Since the launch of the Whirlpool service in 2019 and the Ricochet service in 2017, more than 80,000 BTC (worth more than $ 2 billion at the BTC-USD exchange rate at the time of each transaction) have passed through these two services operated by Samourai," the indictment alleges.
In addition to the mixer services, Samourai also offered a service called Ricochet, which allowed users to send cryptocurrency using additional and unnecessary intermediary transactions to prevent law enforcement agencies and cryptocurrency exchanges from tracking funds received as a result of illegal activities.
Allegedly, the money laundering activities brought the founders of the company about 4.5 million US dollars in commissions for transactions of Whirlpool and Ricochet.
The Samourai Wallet mobile app, downloaded more than 100,000 times, allowed users to store private keys for their controlled BTC addresses and anonymously exchange funds with other Samourai users.
Currently, Icelandic law enforcement agencies have seized the Samourai domains (samourai[.]io and samouraiwallet [.] com) and web servers, and the mentioned mobile app was removed from the Google Play store after receiving the order.
Rodriguez and Hill are charged with conspiracy on two counts: money laundering (a maximum penalty of 20 years in prison) and running an unlicensed money transfer business (a maximum penalty of 5 years in prison).
"By offering Samourai's services as a 'confidential service', the defendants knew that it was a haven for criminals engaged in large — scale money laundering and sanctions evasion, "the Justice Department said. - Samourai laundered more than $ 100 million in criminal proceeds derived, inter alia, from illegal darknet marketplaces such as Silk Road and Hydra Market; various electronic and computer fraud schemes (including web server penetration, targeted phishing, and fraud related to a number of DeFi protocols); and other illegal sources".
Rodriguez was arrested earlier this week and will face trial in the United States in the coming days. Hill was also arrested in Portugal, and the U.S. government plans to request his extradition. Law enforcement agencies in Iceland and Portugal, as well as Europol, were involved in the operation to shut down Samourai.
The indictment alleges that between 2015 and February 2024, Rodriguez and Hill used the Samourai-owned cryptomixer Whirlpool to process more than $ 2 billion in illegal funds.
"Since the launch of the Whirlpool service in 2019 and the Ricochet service in 2017, more than 80,000 BTC (worth more than $ 2 billion at the BTC-USD exchange rate at the time of each transaction) have passed through these two services operated by Samourai," the indictment alleges.
In addition to the mixer services, Samourai also offered a service called Ricochet, which allowed users to send cryptocurrency using additional and unnecessary intermediary transactions to prevent law enforcement agencies and cryptocurrency exchanges from tracking funds received as a result of illegal activities.
Allegedly, the money laundering activities brought the founders of the company about 4.5 million US dollars in commissions for transactions of Whirlpool and Ricochet.
The Samourai Wallet mobile app, downloaded more than 100,000 times, allowed users to store private keys for their controlled BTC addresses and anonymously exchange funds with other Samourai users.
Currently, Icelandic law enforcement agencies have seized the Samourai domains (samourai[.]io and samouraiwallet [.] com) and web servers, and the mentioned mobile app was removed from the Google Play store after receiving the order.
Rodriguez and Hill are charged with conspiracy on two counts: money laundering (a maximum penalty of 20 years in prison) and running an unlicensed money transfer business (a maximum penalty of 5 years in prison).
"By offering Samourai's services as a 'confidential service', the defendants knew that it was a haven for criminals engaged in large — scale money laundering and sanctions evasion, "the Justice Department said. - Samourai laundered more than $ 100 million in criminal proceeds derived, inter alia, from illegal darknet marketplaces such as Silk Road and Hydra Market; various electronic and computer fraud schemes (including web server penetration, targeted phishing, and fraud related to a number of DeFi protocols); and other illegal sources".