Damian Williams, the United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York; Thomas Fattorusso, the Special Agent in Charge of the New York Field Office of the Internal Revenue Service, Criminal Investigation (“IRS-CI”); and James Smith, the Assistant Director in Charge of the New York Field Office of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (“FBI”), announced today the unsealing of an Indictment charging KEONNE RODRIGUEZ, the Chief Executive Officer and a co-founder of Samourai Wallet (“Samourai”), and WILLIAM LONERGAN HILL, the Chief Technology Officer and also a co-founder of Samourai, with conspiracy to commit money laundering and conspiracy to operate an unlicensed money transmitting business.
  • Flying Squid
    11•7 months ago

    This is where I’m supposed to write “this is good news for Bitcoin,” right?

      • FaceDeer
        3•7 months ago

        And Tornado, and Aztec, and all the other similar private exchange mechanisms.

        From about 2015 through February 2024, RODRIGUEZ and HILL developed, marketed, and operated a cryptocurrency mixing service known as Samourai, an unlicensed money transmitting business from which they earned millions of dollars in fees.

        There’s his problem right there, he tried making a business out of this. Paints a big target on someone arrestable and probably means it’s not as secure as it could be. The privacy features in stuff like Aztec or Monero are just part of the cryptocurrency’s infrastructure, not a separate “service,” so there’s not much that can be targeted for those.