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Founders and CEO of Cryptocurrency Mixing Service Arrested and Charged with Money Laundering and Unlicensed Money Transmitting Offenses
On Wednesday, April 24, 2024, the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York announced the indictment of Keonne Rodriguez and William Lonergan Hill for operating an illegal money transmitting business through Samourai Wallet, which processed over $2 billion in unlawful transactions and laundered over $100 million in criminal proceeds.
Damian Williams, U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York, Thomas Fattorusso, Special Agent in Charge of the New York Field Office of the Internal Revenue Service, Criminal Investigation (IRS-CI), and James Smith, Assistant Director in Charge of the New York Field Office of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), reported that charges were brought against Rodriguez, the CEO and co-founder of Samourai, and Hill, the Chief Technology Officer and also a co-founder, for conspiracy to commit money laundering and to operate an unlicensed money transmitting business. These charges stem from their involvement in the development, marketing, and operation of a cryptocurrency mixer that processed over $2 billion in unlawful transactions and facilitated more than $100 million from illegal dark web markets such as Silk Road and Hydra Market, as well as through web-server intrusions, spearphishing schemes, and fraud in decentralized finance protocols.
Rodriguez was arrested this morning and is expected to appear before a U.S. Magistrate Judge in the Western District of Pennsylvania. Hill was arrested this morning in Portugal based on U.S. criminal charges, and the United States will seek his extradition to stand trial in the United States. The case is assigned to U.S. District Judge Richard M. Berman.
In coordination with law enforcement authorities in Iceland, Samourai’s web servers and domain (https://samourai.io/) were seized. Additionally, a seizure warrant for Samourai’s mobile application was served on the Google Play Store, resulting in the application no longer being available for download in the United States.
Damian Williams stated: “As alleged, Keonne Rodriguez and William Lonergan Hill are responsible for developing, marketing, and managing Samourai, a cryptocurrency mixing service that executed over $2 billion in unlawful transactions and served as a haven for criminals to engage in large-scale money laundering. For more information, visit the U.S. Department of Justice website.
