The US Department of Justice has charged Keonne Rodriguez and William Lonergan Hill with laundering more than $100 million through the Samourai cryptomixer, funds they received from various criminal syndicates. The accused individuals allegedly operated the cryptomixer for nearly a decade.
According to the indictment, between February 2024 and the use of the cryptomixer Whirlpool, created by Samourai, over $2 billion of illegal funds were laundered. Samourai not only provided cryptocurrency mixing services but also offered the Ricochet service, allowing users to complicate the detection of fund sources by law enforcement agencies and cryptocurrency exchanges through additional intermediate transactions.
Over the course of operating the Whirlpool and Ricochet services, the founders reportedly earned approximately $4.5 million. Since the launch of Whirlpool in 2019 and Ricochet in 2017, more than 80,000 BTC (equivalent to over $2 billion at the time of the transactions) have reportedly passed through these services.
The Samourai Wallet mobile application, which was downloaded over 100,000 times, enabled users to securely store private keys and conduct anonymous financial transactions within the network.
Authorities in Iceland have seized Samourai domains (Samourai[.]Io and Samouraiwallet[.]com) and web servers, while Google Play has removed the Android application following an arrest order.
Rodriguez was taken into custody on April 24 and is expected to appear in court in Pennsylvania soon. Hill was also arrested on the same day in Portugal on US charges, with the American government intending to seek his extradition for trial in the United States.
Both individuals have been charged with two counts of conspiracy: money laundering (with a maximum penalty of 20 years’ imprisonment) and operating an unlicensed money transmitting business (with a maximum penalty of 5 years in prison).
Despite claims of providing “confidential” services, the accused individuals allegedly knew that their platform was exploited by criminals for large-scale money laundering and circumventing sanctions, as per the US Department of Justice.