Samourai Wallet Founders Arrested for Money Laundering Scheme | U.S. DOJ Cracks Down on Crypto Mixers

The founders of popular crypto-mixing platform Samourai Wallet, Keonne Rodriguez and William Lonergan Hill, have been arrested by U.S. authorities for allegedly laundering over $100 million. The U.S. Department of Justice announced the indictment of Rodriguez and Hill on charges of conspiracy to commit money laundering and operating an unlicensed money transmitter through their platform.

Rodriguez was arrested in the U.S., while Hill was apprehended in Portugal and will be extradited for trial. If convicted, Rodriguez could face up to 20 years in prison, while Hill could face up to five years. The Samourai Wallet website, hosted in Iceland, has been seized, and the app has been removed from the Google Play Store.

Authorities claim that Rodriguez and Hill allowed more than $2 billion in unlawful transactions through Samourai Wallet, collecting over $4.5 million in processing fees since 2015. The DOJ alleges that the creators marketed the platform as a tool for censorship resistance and facilitating illicit activities, providing a safe haven for criminals to operate.

Evidence from private messages and social media posts attributed to Hill suggests that the founders were aware of criminal use of the platform and may have even encouraged it in some cases. The arrests are part of a broader crackdown on crypto mixers used by threat actors like North Korea’s Lazarus group to evade detection and law enforcement.

This case follows recent successful prosecutions of other crypto mixer operators, including Bitcoin Fog founder Roman Sterlingov. The DOJ is also pursuing cases against developers of other platforms like Tornado Cash, Blender, and Sinbad. The crackdown on illicit cryptocurrency activities continues as authorities seek to disrupt criminal networks operating in the digital space.