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The US Department of Justice has arrested the creators of a cryptomixer that helped the Internet mafia.
The US Department of Justice has filed charges against Keonne Rodriguez and William Lonergan Hill for laundering more than $100 million received from various criminal syndicates through the Samourai cryptomixer. The defendants managed cryptomixer for almost 10 years.
According to the indictment, from 2015 to February 2024, over $2 billion of illegal funds were laundered through the Whirlpool cryptomixer developed by Samourai. Samourai offered not only the services of a cryptocurrency mixer, but also the Ricochet service, which allowed sending cryptocurrency through additional intermediate transactions to complicate the tracking of sources of funds by law enforcement agencies and crypto exchanges.
During the operation of the Whirlpool and Ricochet services, the founders earned about $4.5 million. Since the launch of Whirlpool in 2019 and Ricochet in 2017, more than 80,000 BTC (more than $2 billion) have passed through the services. at the exchange rate at the time of transactions).
The Samourai Wallet app for mobile devices has been downloaded more than 100,000 times, allowing users to store private keys and perform anonymous financial transactions between network participants.
Icelandic law enforcement agencies confiscated Samourai domains (samourai[.]io and samouraiwallet [.] com), as well as web servers, and Google Play removed the Android app after receiving an arrest warrant.
Rodriguez was arrested on April 24 and will soon appear in court in Pennsylvania. Hill was also arrested on April 24 in Portugal on U.S. charges, and the U.S. government plans to request his extradition for trial in the United States.
Both are charged with two counts of conspiracy: money laundering (maximum penalty-20 years in prison) and operating an illegal money transfer business (maximum penalty – 5 years in prison).
Despite claims about the "confidentiality" of Samourai's services, the defendants knew that their service was being used by criminals for large-scale money laundering and evasion of sanctions, the US Department of Justice concluded.
The US Department of Justice has filed charges against Keonne Rodriguez and William Lonergan Hill for laundering more than $100 million received from various criminal syndicates through the Samourai cryptomixer. The defendants managed cryptomixer for almost 10 years.
According to the indictment, from 2015 to February 2024, over $2 billion of illegal funds were laundered through the Whirlpool cryptomixer developed by Samourai. Samourai offered not only the services of a cryptocurrency mixer, but also the Ricochet service, which allowed sending cryptocurrency through additional intermediate transactions to complicate the tracking of sources of funds by law enforcement agencies and crypto exchanges.
During the operation of the Whirlpool and Ricochet services, the founders earned about $4.5 million. Since the launch of Whirlpool in 2019 and Ricochet in 2017, more than 80,000 BTC (more than $2 billion) have passed through the services. at the exchange rate at the time of transactions).
The Samourai Wallet app for mobile devices has been downloaded more than 100,000 times, allowing users to store private keys and perform anonymous financial transactions between network participants.
Icelandic law enforcement agencies confiscated Samourai domains (samourai[.]io and samouraiwallet [.] com), as well as web servers, and Google Play removed the Android app after receiving an arrest warrant.
Rodriguez was arrested on April 24 and will soon appear in court in Pennsylvania. Hill was also arrested on April 24 in Portugal on U.S. charges, and the U.S. government plans to request his extradition for trial in the United States.
Both are charged with two counts of conspiracy: money laundering (maximum penalty-20 years in prison) and operating an illegal money transfer business (maximum penalty – 5 years in prison).
Despite claims about the "confidentiality" of Samourai's services, the defendants knew that their service was being used by criminals for large-scale money laundering and evasion of sanctions, the US Department of Justice concluded.
