Pepe

Hedera

Tornado Cash

Read

BlackRock

The US Department of Justice has arrested the co-founders of the <a href="https://samouraiwallet.com/" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow">Samourai Wallet</a> on charges of money laundering and operating an unlicensed money transfer business.
The platform’s CEO, Keonne Rodriguez, and the Chief Technology Officer, William Lonergan Hull, are being accused of facilitating $2 billion in illegal transactions. They are also charged with money laundering on the dark web.
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="550" data-dnt="true">
 Today, the <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/FBI?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow">#FBI</a>, IRS, and partners arrested the founders of the Samourai Wallet cryptocurrency service, which allowed criminals to launder over $1.7B in funds. Read more about FBI Cyber's continuing mission to shut down fraudulent crypto services. <a href="https://t.co/zUBgiSLhjP" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow">https://t.co/zUBgiSLhjP</a>
 — FBI (@FBI) <a href="https://twitter.com/FBI/status/1783243326394667403?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow">April 24, 2024</a>
</blockquote>
<script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
According to the charges, the two “knowingly facilitated the laundering of over $100 million in criminal proceeds from Silk Road, Hydra Market, and a host of other computer hacking and fraud campaigns.”
The prosecution also mentions “Whirlpool,” a crypto mixing service offered by Samourai. It says that the duo encouraged criminals to launder money on the platform through a private message on X (Twitter).
Rodriguez was arrested in the US, and is set to appear before a Pennsylvanian judge. The US government is also seeking the extradition of Hill, who was arrested in Portugal. The Samourai Wallet app has also been taken down from the Google Play Store.
<h2 id="crypto-market-dumps">Crypto Market Dumps</h2>
The news of the arrest of the Samourai Wallet co-founders triggered market panic that saw Bitcoin and several altcoins register price dips.
BTC is down 3.78% in the last 24 hours to trade at $63,971 at 08:19 EST. The largest altcoin, Ether, has also posted a 4.61% price dip to trade at $3,128.
The largest memecoin, DOGE has seen a 7.5% price drop while PEPE is down by nearly 5% and WIF plunged by over 15%.
The price decline has seen $208 million worth of long positions being liquidated from the crypto market in the last 24 hours, according to <a href="https://www.coinglass.com/LiquidationData" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow">Coinglass</a>.
Some in the crypto community criticized the arrests, saying the two developers may go to prison for simply writing code.
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="550" data-dnt="true">
 The developers of Samourai were arrested this morning.
 One extradited from Portugal.
 Samourai is a bitcoin wallet that makes bitcoin private.
 These developers face up to 25 yrs in prison for writing code.
 The US is sending a message.
 No transaction will be private. <a href="https://t.co/GupLtMuHD8" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow">pic.twitter.com/GupLtMuHD8</a>
 — RYAN SΞAN ADAMS – rsa.eth 🦄 (@RyanSAdams) <a href="https://twitter.com/RyanSAdams/status/1783222828361281847?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow">April 24, 2024</a>
</blockquote>
<script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
Tornado Cash founders Roman Storm and Roman Semenov were also charged last year for facilitating money laundering.
<h3 id="also-read">Also Read:</h3>
<ul>
 <li><a href="https://insidebitcoins.com/news/us-seeks-three-years-in-jail-for-binance-founder-changpeng-zhao-says-he-lined-his-pockets-by-violating-the-law" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow">US Seeks Three Years In Jail For Binance Founder Changpeng Zhao, Says He Lined His Pockets By Violating The Law</a></li>
 <li><a href="https://insidebitcoins.com/news/pepe-price-prediction-pepe-plunges-10-despite-coinbase-futures-launch-as-this-dogecoin-derivative-charges-towards-11m" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow">Pepe Price Prediction: PEPE Plunges 10% Despite Coinbase Futures Launch As This Dogecoin Derivative Charges Towards $11M</a></li>
 <li><a href="https://insidebitcoins.com/news/hedera-price-prediction-hbar-plummets-34-on-blackrock-denial-as-this-sol-meme-coin-gives-investors-last-chance-to-buy" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow">Hedera Price Prediction: HBAR Plummets 34% On BlackRock Denial As This SOL Meme Coin Gives Investors Last Chance To Buy</a></li>
</ul>

Samourai Wallet Co-Founders Arrested on Money Laundering Charges

Table of Contents

Inside Bitcoins

Other articles published on Apr 25, 2024

Crypto Market Stumbles After The Arrest Of Samourai’s CEO And CTO

Why Bitcoin price’s road to $70K depends on ETFs and more

Over $26 Million Lost as Dozens of Solana Memecoin Presales Abandoned Last Month

Crypto Trader Reveals How to Earn 10-100x Returns from Market Maker Manipulations

Runes Token Surges Post-Bitcoin Halving, Dominating Over Two-Thirds of Network Transactions

Koala Coin outshines BCH and ALGO amid market downturns

Join our free newsletter for daily crypto updates!