Samourai Wallet seized and founders arrested

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For those who haven't seen it
The FEDs are again in action against services that provide privacy, of course, all under the auspices of the fight against money laundering.


https://samouraiwallet.com/

Federal prosecutors charged Samourai Wallet founders Keonne Rodriguez and William Lonergan Hill with conspiracy to commit money laundering

https://www.coindesk.com/policy/2024/04/24/samourai-wallet-founders-arrested-and-charged-with-money-laundering/
https://www.justice.gov/usao-sdny/pr/founders-and-ceo-cryptocurrency-mixing-service-arrested-and-charged-money-laundering

[Z-tight]

Yeah, thank you for posting it here, it is currently being discussed in bitcointalk, so it's good we can hear the views of users in this forum. The government are seriously going after privacy solutions, it now looks like a witch-hunt at this point and no longer a case of fighting money laundering.

I have been thinking what it would be like to have privacy in a few years from now, would it be completely impossible?

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I have been thinking what it would be like to have privacy in a few years from now, would it be completely impossible?

I believe that it will be as always, the more you press something, the more resistant it becomes.
Increasing pressure on privacy will probably provoke more sophisticated methods to protect it.

[SamReomo]

Those wallets and services that give privacy to the users will always be disliked by the feds and other top authorities.

Samourai Wallet was seized because they might have got something against them but it could also be true that the seized it just by representing it as a money laundering protocol.

Who knows which service that's available to give privacy to users will be targeted next time. I'm not sure what's going to happen next but I believe we may hear some news this year again.

[TomPluz]

The seizure is based on the allegation that Samourai Wallet laundered over $100 million in criminal proceeds through the years starting in 2015. While I am personally not so keen on money laundering, I am sure that the government will be using this pretext in order to run after crypto-based platforms that are offering privacy to their users because for them privacy means you must be hiding something. I am hoping that founders Keonne Rodriguez and William Lonergan Hill  will be given their fair hearing on their case and that they will fight to the end to regain their freedom, if not the business itself. Let's hope that this is not another overreach on the part of the government and they are really just doing their mandated job in the process.

[Don Pedro Dinero]

Who knows which service that's available to give privacy to users will be targeted next time.

That's what I wonder, which one will be next, but we can be sure that some other service is already being investigated. In this particular case, according to the release they defended the use of Samourai for black money:

"At Samourai we are entirely focused on the censorship resistance and black/grey circular economy,"

I wonder if they would not have said these things if they had been seized the same way. I suppose they would have a better defence but I don't think they would have got away with it.

[Z-tight]

Samourai Wallet was seized because they might have got something against them but it could also be true that the seized it just by representing it as a money laundering protocol.

The government will call every privacy solution a money laundering tool in this their fight against money laundering, if they cannot track the activities of its users or trace and link tx's, then they try to seize it and call it a money laundering tool. According to the government, they should know about every single thing you do with your money.

[Freemind]

Another service focused on user privacy that is closed with the excuse of money laundering. Another example of the control over citizens that governments want to have, and to a certain extent already have. If governments were really that concerned about money laundering, the first thing they would have to close are the banks and the first people they should arrest and jail are the bankers and people who engage in systematic theft. But that is something they will never do, since the governments themselves are an active part of that corruption.

[SamReomo]

That's what I wonder, which one will be next, but we can be sure that some other service is already being investigated.

Yes, I also think that they might already be investigating some other service and who knows how long it will take them to seize that one.

The government will call every privacy solution a money laundering tool in this their fight against money laundering

I agree, that's why they try their best to force centralized exchange to delist privacy coins like Monero, and that's why I also deeply believe that they're fully against the concept of privacy.

[Faisal2202]

For those who haven't seen it
The FEDs are again in action against services that provide privacy, of course, all under the auspices of the fight against money laundering.

Federal prosecutors charged Samourai Wallet founders Keonne Rodriguez and William Lonergan Hill with conspiracy to commit money laundering

Another wicket for the SEC and DOJ, Although I am not a user of this wallet but heard a lot about it as people prefer to use Samourai instead of Wasabi or any other. But now I guess the wasabi wallet's downloads will increase more. I won't say it's a bad thing that another wallet was taken down by the authorities because what they did was for the safety of us, although its a loss to those who prefer anonymity but still there are alternatives in the market.

The funny thing is Wasabi also provides a conjoin service but due to some centralization in it, it's been not faced any warnings or seizures like Samourai did. I think these authorities really want to eliminate all the products providing anonymity, and on the article, they only mentioned that the CTO and CEO made 4 million dollars via fee and they were unregistered, but not a proof that they laundered illegal funds.

[notblox1]

For those who haven't seen it
The FEDs are again in action against services that provide privacy, of course, all under the auspices of the fight against money laundering.

Samourai Wallet became the new dangerous terrorist as they run out of those terrorist stories.
One day they are going to come to house of every single person on earth to confiscate and seize something, but we dont have to worry because this is all done for our safety 
Now they need more tax payer scam money stolen from people.

[LogitechMouse]

One down, more to go.
First it was mixers then Samourai. Expect more in the future.

They are just saying "money laundering" blah, blah, blah. It might be true, it might be not, but the government really doesn't want privacy. I'm a user of the wallet, and unfortunately, I have some funds in it. Just saw the news a day after it happened, and with how much I have with that wallet, I felt sad like what other Samourai users are.

Anyway, can I ask if there's a way for me to withdraw the funds that I have from the wallet? Or I can't get it anymore. I'm still ok if I can't get it anyway.

[ABCbits]

Anyway, can I ask if there's a way for me to withdraw the funds that I have from the wallet? Or I can't get it anymore. I'm still ok if I can't get it anyway.

Just read this documentation https://docs.samourai.io/wallet/restore-recovery, section "Export to external wallet". https://docs.samourai.io/en/wallet/advanced-usage also shows private key for individual address/UTXO.

[Lucius]

Another service focused on user privacy that is closed with the excuse of money laundering. Another example of the control over citizens that governments want to have, and to a certain extent already have. If governments were really that concerned about money laundering, the first thing they would have to close are the banks and the first people they should arrest and jail are the bankers and people who engage in systematic theft. But that is something they will never do, since the governments themselves are an active part of that corruption.

Banks are the government's instrument of control over people, and they also serve to launder money in quantities that are probably in the trillions of $. Let's just remember the case of HSBC Bank, which was involved in money laundering for drug cartels and various other criminal activities around the world, so when they were threatened with closure in the US, the entire political elite of the UK came to lobby to prevent this from happening, and instead of a ban, they paid a fine of $1.92 billions and continued as if nothing had happened.

The message that the authorities send with such actions is that if you want to engage in criminal activities, you must be very big and powerful - otherwise the system will show all its strength on you.

[Freemind]

Banks are the government's instrument of control over people, and they also serve to launder money in quantities that are probably in the trillions of $. Let's just remember the case of HSBC Bank, which was involved in money laundering for drug cartels and various other criminal activities around the world, so when they were threatened with closure in the US, the entire political elite of the UK came to lobby to prevent this from happening, and instead of a ban, they paid a fine of $1.92 billions and continued as if nothing had happened.

The message that the authorities send with such actions is that if you want to engage in criminal activities, you must be very big and powerful - otherwise the system will show all its strength on you.

People wonder why the darknet and others exist. I do not defend what is done on many of these sites, but when we talk about privacy I think it is an example to follow. Especially with tools like Tor, which, despite having limitations, means that many people can have a little more privacy and freedom. I hope privacy tools continue to appear for the attack that we are suffering as users who have nothing to hide, but who do not consent to being spied on. With each passing day, the control that governments want to have over citizens becomes more blatant.