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The government alleges the founders knowingly facilitated $2 billion of unlawful transactions and the laundering of $100 million from Silk Road and other black market platforms.<\/p>\n
The U.S. Department of Justice has charged<\/a> the two founders of the popular privacy-focused Bitcoin wallet Samourai with facilitating money laundering and unlicensed money transmitting offenses.<\/p>\n The charges levied against both founders carry maximum sentences of 20 years and five years, respectively.<\/p>\n Keonne Rodriguez and William Lonergan Hill, the CEO and CTO of Samourai, are being charged with creating a wallet that executed $2 billion in unlawful transactions and knowingly facilitated the laundering of $100 million in assets from known black market platforms Silk Road<\/a> and Hydra Market, according to a press release.<\/p>\n Both founders have also been charged with enabling a variety of other crimes, including wire fraud and computer fraud schemes, a web-server intrusion, a spearphishing scheme, and schemes to defraud multiple decentralized finance (DeFi) protocols.<\/p>\n U.S. authorities have seized the website, which is hosted in Iceland. Additionally, a seizure warrant for Samourai\u2019s mobile wallet was served on the Google Play store.<\/p>\n \u201cAs alleged, Keonne Rodriguez and William Lonergan Hill are responsible for developing, marketing, and operating 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,\u201d said U.S. Attorney Damian Williams.<\/p>\n IRS-CI Special Agent in Charge Thomas Fattorusso added, \u201c$2 billion in transactions with an unlicensed money transmitter means $2 billion flowed without any oversight, from whomever to wherever.\u201d<\/p>\n The arrest triggered an outcry from the Bitcoin community, as claims that privacy is being outlawed by the U.S. government were voiced.<\/p>\n \u201cThis is an overreach of government against our civil liberties,\u201d wrote<\/a> Trevor Owens, general partner of the Bitcoin Frontier Fund. \u201cWe need everyone in the Bitcoin Ordinals community to help fight against this. Free Samourai Wallet.\u201d<\/p>\n His concerns were echoed by Zack Voell, a seasoned crypto writer, who posted<\/a>, \u201cPrivacy is a crime. That is the status quo.\u201d<\/p>\n Ethereum developer and founder of privacy-focused portfolio app Rotki Lefteris Karapetsas added, \u201cOffering the ability to preserve a user\u2019s privacy in a completely public ledger is criminal activity now. If something has the potential of being used by a criminal entity, you as the software developer, are also liable?\u201d<\/p>\nIs Privacy A Crime?<\/h2>\n