On 24 April 2024 US prosecutors charged Samourai Wallet founders Keonne Rodriguez and William Lonergan Hill with conspiracy to commit money laundering and conspiracy to operate an unlicensed money transmitting business. The press release alleged the service facilitated more than $100 million in laundering from dark-web markets, and about $2 billion in “unlawful transactions” over years — dollar figures converted at then-prices, which is how those numbers get large. Rodriguez was arrested in the US; Hill in Portugal.
This is not the 2022 OFAC designation of Tornado Cash smart contracts. Different tool, different charging theory, different year. Do not mash mixers into one morality play.
What happened
Samourai sold a Bitcoin wallet and a coordinated mixing feature (Whirlpool) as a product. The government says that product was a money transmitting business that needed a licence and that the founders invited criminal proceeds. The defence, when it is written, will say something about software, privacy, and who actually controls coins. A magazine is not a jury. Read the indictment if you need the verbs.
Why it matters
If you used Samourai, you now have an operational fact: the company is in a criminal case and the service was disrupted. If you care about Bitcoin privacy, the interesting question is which designs look like a service with customers and a fee, and which look like you running software at home. That line is being drawn by prosecutors, not by a BIP. Stay on the charge and the product. We will not use this page to cheer a raid or to sell a mixer.
What happens next
Extradition, motions, and a long calendar. Other mixing cases will be cited as cousins. Nothing here is legal advice, and it is not an instruction to buy, sell, or mix coins.
