Keonne Rodriguez and William Lonergan Hill’s journey into the world of cybercrime began innocently enough. They were both tech-savvy individuals with a passion for cryptography and a desire to create something that would revolutionize the digital world.
Little did they know that their creation, Samourai Wallet, would become the center of one of the largest money laundering schemes in history.
It all started in 2015 when Rodriguez and Hill launched Samourai Wallet, marketing it as a privacy-focused application designed to protect users’ financial transactions. The app gained popularity quickly, with customers around the globe downloading it more than 100,000 times.
Intentions behind Samourai Wallet were not noble
However, behind the facade of anonymity and security, Rodriguez and Hill had darker intentions. They saw an opportunity to capitalize on the anonymity of cryptocurrency and create a haven for criminals to engage in large-scale money laundering and sanctions evasion.
Using Samourai Wallet, criminals were able to process over $2 billion in anonymous financial transactions, providing a safe harbor for illegal activities. The app became particularly popular among users of illegal dark web marketplaces like Silk Road and Hydra Market, as well as those involved in various computer fraud schemes.
To further promote their illegal activities, Rodriguez and Hill took to social media, posting messages on Twitter, now known as “X,” that touted Samourai’s ability to anonymize transactions. One such message from Rodriguez in 2022 welcomed new Russian oligarch Samourai Wallet users, according to the US indictment.
Whirlpool Features of Samourai
As regulators globally began to crack down on crypto mixers, which were designed to obscure the origins and destinations of certain transactions, Rodriguez and Hill continued to expand their operation.
They developed features like “Whirlpool,” which coordinated crypto exchanges among users to prevent the tracing of funds, and “Ricochet,” which added extra intermediate transactions between the payer and recipient to further disguise transactions.
These features not only made cryptocurrency tracing much more challenging but also made Samourai Wallet incredibly profitable. The app allegedly made $3.4 million in fees from Whirlpool and $1.1 million from Ricochet.
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Despite efforts by law enforcement agencies to stop them, Rodriguez and Hill continued to operate Samourai Wallet until February 2024, when they were finally apprehended. Rodriguez, 35, was arrested in western Pennsylvania, while Hill, 65, was arrested in Portugal. US authorities announced plans to seek Hill’s extradition.
In collaboration with authorities in Iceland, Samourai’s web servers and domain were seized, along with a seizure warrant served on the Google Play Store for the Samourai Wallet mobile application. This action ensures that the application is no longer available for download in the United States.
The indictment against Rodriguez and Hill includes charges of money laundering conspiracy and operating an unlicensed money transmitting business, carrying a maximum sentence of 25 years in prison. As the case unfolds in the US District Court for the Southern District of New York, it serves as a stark reminder of the dangers of the dark side of technology and the lengths to which some will go to exploit it for their own gain.
