- Samourai Wallet developers denied dismissal as legal battle drags on.
- They face charges of money laundering and unlicensed transmission.
- Prosecutors reject call for hearing, say no Brady violation occurred.
The developers of Samourai Wallet have long championed their privacy-first Bitcoin app as a shield against financial surveillance.
But prosecutors aren’t buying it.
The developers, Keonne Rodriguez and William Lonergan Hill, are facing charges of conspiracy to commit money laundering and operating an unlicensed money transmitting business.
Prosecutors allege that their software helped criminals obscure the origin of their Bitcoin transactions, making it harder for authorities to track illicit funds.
Despite a memo last month from Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche, which directed federal prosecutors to avoid targeting digital asset firms for regulatory violations without clear evidence of wilful misconduct, the Southern District of New York has declined to drop the charges.
In a court filing on Friday, prosecutors pushed back against the developers’ claims of a Brady violation — a legal doctrine that requires the government to disclose any potentially exculpatory evidence.
According to the defence, FinCEN officials told prosecutors months before charges were filed that Samourai Wallet likely did not meet the definition of a money transmitter under the Bank Secrecy Act.
The defence argues that this information, which the government disclosed only recently, undermines a key part of the prosecution’s case and could have influenced pretrial motions or bail decisions.
However, prosecutors argued that there is “no basis for a hearing, nor is there anything to remedy” in the disclosure, according to Bitcoin Policy Institute’s Head of Policy Zack Shapiro.
The letter reportedly states that the government had already turned over “all known substantive communications between the prosecution team and FinCEN regarding Samourai Wallet months in advance of pretrial motions and trial.”
They added that the defendants will have seven months to make use of the information before the case goes to trial and concluded that “nothing more is warranted.”
The government also maintains that the FinCEN guidance is irrelevant to the more serious money laundering charge, which they say hinges on whether the developers knowingly facilitated the movement of illicit funds, rather than the wallet’s classification under the BSA.
Crypto market movers
- Bitcoin has gained 0.8% in the past 24 hours and is trading at $103,590.
- Ethereum is up 3.5% in the same period to $2,390.
What we’re reading
- XRP’s value surged 458% on Coinbase to brighten a rough first quarter ― DL News
- DeFi Looping Comes to Apollo’s $1.3 Billion Credit Fund. What Could Go Wrong? ― Unchained
- Invest like a dead person → win ― Milk Road
- Ether shakes off torpor and explodes 32% in two days amid Pectra upgrade ― DL News
Kyle Baird is DL News’ Weekend Editor. Got a tip? Email at kbaird@dlnews.com.
