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Samourai Wallet founders Keonne Rodriguez and William Lonergan Hill have been arrested by U.S. authorities for laundering over $100 million. 
According to an April 24 press <a href="https://www.justice.gov/usao-sdny/pr/founders-and-ceo-cryptocurrency-mixing-service-arrested-and-charged-money-laundering" target="_blank" rel="">statement</a> from the U.S. Department of Justice, federal prosecutors have indicted Rodriguez and Hill with conspiracy to commit money laundering and conspiracy to operate an unlicensed money transmitter via crypto-mixing platform Samourai.&nbsp; 
Per the notice, Rodriguez was arrested on U.S. soil, while Hill was apprehended in Portugal and will be extradited to face trial. If convicted, Rodriguez faces a sentence of up to 20 years and Hill up to five years. 
Samourai’s Wallet website, hosted in Iceland, was also seized, and the Google Play Store was petitioned to offboard the application.&nbsp; 
<figure class="wp-block-image aligncenter size-full">
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 <img loading="lazy" decoding="async" width="624" height="368" src="https://crypto.news/app/uploads/2024/04/picture1_1.png" alt="Samourai"> 
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 Samourai Wallet website seized | Source: U.S. DOJ
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 You might also like: <a href="https://crypto.news/unveiling-the-shadows-fincens-crackdown-on-crypto-mixers/" rel=""> Unveiling the shadows: FinCEN’s crackdown on crypto mixers </a> 
Authorities allege that the pair allowed more than $2 billion in unlawful transactions through the protocol, pocketing over $4.5 million in processing fees since 2015.&nbsp;The DOJ said Samourai’s creators marketed the platform as “focused on censorship resistance and black/grey circular economy,” offering bad actors a haven to operate clandestine activities.&nbsp; 
Private messages and social media posts attributed to Hill were cited as evidence to support the argument that Samourai knew criminals leveraged the tool and even encouraged it in some cases.&nbsp; 
The arrests are a continuation of an ongoing crackdown on crypto mixers believed to be used by threat actors like North Korea’s <a href="https://crypto.news/chainalysis-crypto-money-laundering-falls-29-as-lazarus-others-respond-to-mixer-sanctions/" target="_blank" rel="">Lazarus</a> to evade oversight and undermine law enforcement.&nbsp; 
Last month, federal prosecutors won a case against Bitcoin Fog founder Roman Sterlingov for <a href="https://crypto.news/bitcoin-fog-founder-convicted-crypto-laundering/" rel="">facilitating</a> over $400 million in illegal drug sales. 
The DOJ also has a case against Tornado Cash developers Roman Storm and Roman Semenov, while other crypto mixers like <a href="https://crypto.news/u-s-government-crypto-service-sanction-north-korea-launder-funds/" rel="">Blender</a> and <a href="https://crypto.news/sinbad-crypto-mixer-sanctioned-by-u-s-treasury/" rel="">Sinbad</a> have been sanctioned. 
 Read more: <a href="https://crypto.news/tornado-cash-co-founder-claps-back-laundering-charges/" rel=""> Tornado Cash co-founder seeks dismissal of US crypto-laundering charges </a>

DOJ arrests Samourai Wallet founder over $2b illegal money flow

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