Prosecutors in the case against the anonymous cryptocurrency wallet Samourai Wallet have dismissed the defense’s accusations of concealing crucial information and have refused to withdraw the lawsuit, prolonging the ongoing legal battle. This was reported by Zack Shapiro, Head of Policy at the Bitcoin Policy Institute.
Further Update: @SDNYnews declines to drop charges against Samourai Wallet developers and responds to the defense’s Brady Letter that:
“[t]here is no basis for a hearing, nor is there anything to remedy: the disclosure itself shows that the Government has not violated Brady. The… https://t.co/vE2hiNGEha
— Zack Shapiro (@zackbshapiro) May 9, 2025
In April 2024, the service’s founders, Keonne Rodriguez and William Lonergan Hill, were arrested on charges of facilitating the laundering of $100 million in criminal proceeds. According to authorities, since 2015, the wallet has processed anonymous transactions totaling $2 billion.
On April 29, Rodriguez was released on a $1 million bail, secured by real estate in Pennsylvania, as well as signatures from his wife and another family member. He pleaded not guilty to operating an unlicensed money transmission business and laundering criminal proceeds.
Hill was released in July on a $2 million bail, with $200,000 in cash and the remainder secured by his family home in New York.
The developers’ lawyers emphasized that even Google did not consider Samourai Wallet illegal. According to them, in May 2015, the corporation allowed the wallet app to be listed on its Android marketplace.
“[FinCEN] has long made it clear that peer-to-peer applications like Samourai Wallet […], are not considered money transmission services. The fact that Hill […] offered the app openly for nine years indicates that [the government], like the senators, also considered it legal,” stated the defense.
The defense also compared the “aggressive prosecution” of the developer to “holding Apple accountable for cybercrimes committed through a MacBook.”
According to a letter from the founders’ lawyers dated May 5, 2025, the prosecution also withheld information crucial to the court.
Just revealed: FinCEN explicitly told prosecutors Samourai Wallet wasn’t a money transmitter due to its non-custodial design; DOJ prosecuted developers anyway, suppressing exculpatory evidence for a year. pic.twitter.com/nxyDrXQGr8
— Zack Shapiro (@zackbshapiro) May 5, 2025
In August 2023, FinCEN representatives informed U.S. Department of Justice prosecutors that the service was not a money services provider and did not require a license due to its non-custodial nature. According to the defense, six months later, the same prosecutors charged Rodriguez and Hill with operating without a license.
The prosecution did not disclose information about the informal consultation with the regulator for more than 12 months—until April 1, 2025—and shared it only after a special request. Lawyers pointed to a potential violation of Brady disclosure provisions.
The defense also filed a motion to dismiss the case, citing Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche’s orders to cease prosecution of crypto exchanges, mixers, and offline wallets. The court has yet to make a decision.
According to Shapiro, Justice Department officials rejected accusations of concealing information. They stated that all “substantial communications” were disclosed “several months” before the trial, and the motion to dismiss the case should be denied.
Furthermore, the licensing issue of Samourai Wallet pertains only to one of the two charges against the developers—operating as a money services provider. The charge of money laundering would remain unchanged regardless of this information’s disclosure, according to the Justice Department.
In April, the court prohibited the U.S. Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control from reinstating or imposing repeated sanctions against the Tornado Cash service.