Samourai Wallet Founder Arrested for Money Laundering \ stacker news ~privacy

Samourai Wallet Founder Arrested for Money Laundering www.justice.gov/usao-sdny/pr/founders-and-ceo-cryptocurrency-mixing-service-arrested-and-charged-money-laundering

11.3k sats \ 106 comments \ @Se7enZ 24 Apr privacy

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411 sats \ 5 replies \ @SUPERMAX 24 Apr

Best way to acquire Bitcoin is to mine.

Always has been.

25 sats \ 3 replies \ @Zenul_Abidin 25 Apr

But you need to buy a bunch of ASICs to mine bitcoin, whether with a pool or not, so that's a non-starter for normal people.

10 sats \ 2 replies \ @SUPERMAX 25 Apr

I agree with your initial thought on this, but disagree in execution for folks.

You can purchase even something as small as a BitAxe and connect to a pool that pays out in Lightning

All matters is how bad you want it.

Or..

Go find someone who does have ASIC's plugged in and kindly ask if you can pay their electric bill in exchange for their sats. Again how bad do you want it. Nothing is easy. You want easy, just buy right from exchange.

15 sats \ 1 reply \ @doubleplusgood23 26 Apr

Are you personally doing this? I think you're underestimating just how institutional and refined bitcoin mining is. It's big business.

10 sats \ 0 replies \ @SUPERMAX 26 Apr

I am blessed to do so.

Again how bad do you want it.

1020 sats \ 0 replies \ @chapped 27 Apr

That's not true!

You'll end up with more bitcoin almost every time if you market buy ASAP. Mining will acquire bitcoin at a delay and it will usually be less than a market buy at spot price at the same time you would have bought mining equipment.

Even in the very early days. You could have used minimal power to mine 50 BTC 2 or 3 times a day! However, if you found a seller, you could have acquired thousands of bitcoin for hundreds of USD!

1466 sats \ 14 replies \ @Rsync25 24 Apr

The anti-privacy wave is coming. Be prepared guys!

War was successfully declared.

21 sats \ 1 reply \ @quark 24 Apr

it has been declared for a while now

0 sats \ 0 replies \ @Rsync25 25 Apr

Yes :)

21 sats \ 7 replies \ @ek 24 Apr

Be prepared guys!

How do you prepare?

648 sats \ 4 replies \ @petertodd 24 Apr

The Bitcoin community should be getting prepared politically, by setting up legal defense funds (including for the present case) as well as setting up lobbying organizations.

The tendency of bitcoiners to just say "fuck politics" and disengage is deadly. You can't avoid politics with code. You can gain some power. But not enough to resist all politics.

122 sats \ 0 replies \ @freetx 24 Apr

The problem is the mega-stack holders are either (a) Playing jurisdictional arbitrage and thus feel safe, or (b) Already part of the Wall Street machine and thus feel safe.

22 sats \ 0 replies \ @denationalized 25 Apr

Cypherpunks run code.

The problem is that if you speak up publicly for someone they just go without a warrant to your house, take your computer and try to steal your Bitcoin and you may end up in custody. Thus speaking for someone may preclude your ability of running code. At the very least it is like saying: "I am a domestic terrorist. Come and take me."

0 sats \ 0 replies \ @Zenul_Abidin 25 Apr

I hate to say it, but first let's start by ignoring this whole raft with JPEGs. Fees are at least back to pre-halving levels now.

We can't overcome this without a united front.

0 sats \ 0 replies \ @Rsync25 25 Apr

True

0 sats \ 1 reply \ @Rsync25 25 Apr

Using privacy tools.

10 sats \ 0 replies \ @Zenul_Abidin 25 Apr

The privacy tools are the ones being taken down here. You need to talk and spread the word.

21 sats \ 1 reply \ @TheWildHustle 24 Apr

The vanguard is stronger than its ever been.

0 sats \ 0 replies \ @shyfire 24 Apr

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0 sats \ 1 reply \ @026180d3a3 24 Apr

Coming? Hell, I've been in the jungle for the last 20 years. Where have you been?

10 sats \ 0 replies \ @shyfire 24 Apr

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435 sats \ 4 replies \ @siggy47 24 Apr

Looks like the battle lines have been drawn. I can hear Which Side Are You On? in my head. I can see how this plays out and it won't be good. Saylor and Fink calling for transparency and compliance. I hope I'm wrong.

54 sats \ 1 reply \ @TomK 25 Apr

Do You see a general attack on the LN?

42 sats \ 0 replies \ @siggy47 25 Apr

I hope I'm overreacting. I do that a lot. 😀 Seriously, though, it certainly looks like it's possible if the US government is going to strictly enforce this money transmitter notion.

10 sats \ 0 replies \ @Zenul_Abidin 25 Apr

1 sat \ 0 replies \ @orthwyrm 25 Apr

Unfortunately I think you are exactly right. At least in the short-to-medium term.

217 sats \ 1 reply \ @TheBTCManual 24 Apr

Is this because they didn't slap an OFAC filter on their mixer? Really sucks for the dudes involved man, I guess we're all going to need to run join markets on our nodes and sack up

2 sats \ 0 replies \ @shyfire 24 Apr

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63 sats \ 1 reply \ @_stacktoshi 24 Apr

Listening to someone pretty knowledgeable on the subject (Luke Parker) on an X space rn. Sounds like they were marketing the product towards subverting laws as opposed to just offering privacy.

21 sats \ 0 replies \ @shyfire 24 Apr

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76 sats \ 1 reply \ @NachoKeys 24 Apr

Inevitable. These services were never gonna survive long term.

Plus if those cats were openly bragging about helping people launder money as alleged in the articles, they're F'd sideways

508 sats \ 0 replies \ @kristapsk 24 Apr

Have always said JoinMarket has the biggest chance of survival of all currernt coinjoin implementations in case of full scale war on Bitcoin privacy, as there is no centralized service profiting, there is no company behind it, even if you arrest or kill all the devs, code is open, people can still run it. Also true for Samourai and Wasabi, but both require single centralized coordinator to coordinate coinjoin rounds. In JoinMarket taker is coordinating, which means anyone can do it and there always will be makers over Tor ready to provide liquidity, no single server ever to seize / shut down.

55 sats \ 1 reply \ @Satosora 24 Apr

What is the famous saying from Batman? "You either die a hero, or live long enough to see yourself become the villain."

177 sats \ 0 replies \ @jeff 24 Apr

I don't think that applies here.

That quote speaks to inevitable corruption of the hero or the confusion of a mob.

Whats happening here, is that the maker of a gun, is arrested for alleged murder with said gun.

517 sats \ 11 replies \ @ek 24 Apr

If I understand @DarthCoin, @Lux and @mo right, they have nothing to be afraid of if they realize they are not citizens

42 sats \ 1 reply \ @elvismercury 24 Apr

Jail is a state of mind.

27 sats \ 0 replies \ @anon 28 Apr

Man I love the this comment - made me laugh

17 sats \ 0 replies \ @Lux 24 Apr

Ignorantia juris non excusat

96 sats \ 5 replies \ @DarthCoin 24 Apr

exactly right Also this: How can they be charged with laundering money when they don’t classify bitcoin as money?

138 sats \ 1 reply \ @Lux 24 Apr

where's the victim of the crime?

21 sats \ 0 replies \ @DarthCoin 24 Apr

E-X-A-C-T-L-Y

221 sats \ 0 replies \ @CruncherDefi 25 Apr

🤡

Seriously. Get real. This "I don't believe in government" cosplay is not how we win.

Physical power doesn't care about laws, words, believes or signed pieces of paper. Those are abstract things. Physical power projection exists objectively in physical reality.

The only way to fight back and win is to become power projectors ourselves.

0 sats \ 0 replies \ @Se7enZ OP 25 Apr

This was exactly my reflection too

0 sats \ 0 replies \ @kepford 25 Apr

When has a state ever contradicted themselves or lied?

10 sats \ 0 replies \ @kytt 24 Apr

🤭

1 sat \ 0 replies \ @Bell_curve 25 Apr

Armchair legal experts

292 sats \ 3 replies \ @TheWildHustle 24 Apr

Then they fight us.

.......The money launderers are arresting money launderers. The temperature is rising.

209 sats \ 2 replies \ @freetx 24 Apr

.......The money launderers are arresting money launderers. The temperature is rising.

They should've just used Ukraine as a mixer like the pros do.....

20 sats \ 0 replies \ @TheWildHustle 24 Apr

That’s a zap, freak

0 sats \ 0 replies \ @Bell_curve 25 Apr

96 sats \ 0 replies \ @gunson 24 Apr

This is serious

10 sats \ 0 replies \ @anon 27 Apr

Can someone explain me that reason why FBI can arrest someone outside of the U.S.. The announcement said CTO was in Portugal and even their servers are running in Iceland. Is that because samourai release there app in the U.S. app store? Or, the announcement said there are samourai users in there jurisdiction, is this reason?

70 sats \ 0 replies \ @Cowboy 25 Apr

193 sats \ 2 replies \ @siggy47 24 Apr

From the press release:

As alleged, Keonne Rodriguez and William Lonergan Hill are responsible for developing, marketing, and operating Samourai, a cryptocurrency mixing service that executed over $2 billion in unlawful transactions and served as a haven for criminals to engage in large-scale money laundering.

IRS-CI Special Agent in Charge Thomas Fattorusso said: “$2 billion in transactions with an unlicensed money transmitter means $2 billion flowed without any oversight, from whomever to wherever.

81 sats \ 1 reply \ @Scoresby 24 Apr

without any oversight, from whomever to wherever.

33 sats \ 0 replies \ @siggy47 24 Apr

Yep. Let that sink in.

23 sats \ 0 replies \ @Se7enZ OP 24 Apr

https://samouraiwallet.com/

Seized.

3 sats \ 2 replies \ @Catcher 24 Apr

Wasabi next?

21 sats \ 0 replies \ @wealthcrumb 24 Apr

Why? Already compromised

0 sats \ 0 replies \ @SUPERMAX 24 Apr

I'd say so. Yikes...

21 sats \ 0 replies \ @TNStacker 25 Apr

Is Craig Raw ok?

27 sats \ 6 replies \ @DarthCoin 24 Apr

It is all a stunt operation ! Samurai guys were all along part of this. They will get away and you will never hear from them. This operation is exactly the same as Silk Road, a cover-up to hit hard on Bitcoin. As Ross was a patsy, samourai devs are also patsies.

Don't believe Darth? Fine @remindme 1 year

21 sats \ 1 reply \ @BitcoinMaximan 25 Apr

I think its called a "sting operation", and yeah, my thoughts too. They were certainly "asked" to cooperate a while ago, they cooperated, and once the real target was identified the sting is done.

30 sats \ 0 replies \ @DarthCoin 25 Apr

oh yeah is sting, my mistake.

5 sats \ 0 replies \ @yo2xncv0 25 Apr

You're a literal retard

0 sats \ 1 reply \ @Longtermwizard 24 Apr

What wallet do we use on chain then?

2 sats \ 0 replies \ @DarthCoin 24 Apr

Did you ever read ALL my guides?

https://darth-coin.github.io/

0 sats \ 0 replies \ @kepford 24 Apr

Will do @DarthCoin.

@remindme 1 year

1000 sats \ 12 replies \ @OT 24 Apr

Is whirlpool still working?

1 sat \ 3 replies \ @rtr 24 Apr

Correct me if I'm wrong but isn't the whirlpool coordinator FOSS and self-hostable? How hard would it be for someone to run that again?

Maybe the liquidity wouldn't be that big, but atleast we can get started again.

1 sat \ 2 replies \ @OT 24 Apr

I'm sure they have a backup plan. There's 10k BTC in there (was?)

0 sats \ 1 reply \ @santochibtc 28 Apr

They never had the custody of the UTXOs

0 sats \ 0 replies \ @OT 28 Apr

I know.

I mean they didn't have a backup for who would run whirlpool in case they were arrested

1 sat \ 7 replies \ @wealthcrumb 24 Apr

Server is down. Not sure what that means for BTC currently in the mixer. Might require running Dojo, or worse.

16 sats \ 0 replies \ @kristapsk 24 Apr

Not sure what that means for BTC currently in the mixer

With coinjoins you never give up custody of bitcoins to a third party, every coinjoin transaction needs to be signed by all participants for it to be a valid Bitcoin transaction.

1 sat \ 4 replies \ @shyfire 24 Apr

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0 sats \ 0 replies \ @orthwyrm 25 Apr

Unfortunately I doubt the non-custodial aspect holds any weight if the Tornado Cash situation is anything to go by.

0 sats \ 2 replies \ @OT 24 Apr

These kind of terms noncustodial, mixer, coinjoin will play out in court and set a precedent for future cases.

101 sats \ 0 replies \ @BenAllenG 25 Apr

Prosecution and judge will likely avoid this at all costs, they hate setting precedent where they can avoid it. Likely they will just show big numbers to the jury "tWo bIlLion lAunDeRed" and show one actual criminal they can prove used coin join and then point at samourai's marketing as clearly they knew they were running a money laundering scheme.

0 sats \ 0 replies \ @shyfire 25 Apr

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0 sats \ 0 replies \ @OT 24 Apr

You'd think they have been prepared for this moment. I guess all will be revealed over the coming years

10 sats \ 0 replies \ @konstantin21 24 Apr

migration docs for any who needs

https://docs.samourai.io/wallet/restore-recovery

and backup

https://send.internxt.com/download/b43d89a8-8287-4369-a141-654634a53036?code=727a681c72731b402cc240cc7f7b9c0890dc1c7f63af1b22876a8de0ab2bd000

31 sats \ 0 replies \ @CryptoTweetie 25 Apr

21 sats \ 0 replies \ @grayruby 24 Apr

Just saw this on Twitter. Scary.

1 sat \ 0 replies \ @Wumbo 24 Apr

https://www.coindesk.com/policy/2024/04/24/samourai-wallet-founders-arrested-and-charged-with-money-laundering/

0 sats \ 0 replies \ @anon 28 Apr

Could fedi.xyz be a solution? i.e. fedimint ( I don't know much about it but apparently people like it )

0 sats \ 0 replies \ @SpaceHodler 25 Apr

They were marketing it explicitly for illegal use.

Example (from Matt Kratter's latest video): https://twitter.com/SamouraiWallet/status/1542533704635015168

0 sats \ 0 replies \ @FallingD02 25 Apr

The government seeking to control bitcoin, that is why the way forward is, not to stop learning to become more ungovernable every day ⚡🤠🍊

0 sats \ 0 replies \ @jshagenow4 25 Apr

Hey all - not sure if anyone needs to see this as it pertains to all this....but it looks like one may need/want to take some extra steps if you have or currently were a user of SW.... I copied the link myself from this twitter page for use here after reading through it and figuring it looked legit and helpful.

This was shared with me in a discord group I am in of pretty trusted individuals...as always though - do your own due diligence...take care of yourselves out there and STAY HUMBLE AND STACK SATS!

https://x.com/sethforprivacy/status/1783270473121382845

0 sats \ 0 replies \ @cyberpunk0101 25 Apr

Was this Because of the XMR atomic Swaps ?

0 sats \ 0 replies \ @HardMoney 25 Apr

Rights are taken, not given

0 sats \ 0 replies \ @freebookspls 25 Apr

It was a matter of time, let's be honest

0 sats \ 0 replies \ @Bell_curve 25 Apr

Regarding Silk Road, most people used bitcoin fog or tumbler. I forget the exact name. The original Silk Road was seized in 2013 October.

0 sats \ 1 reply \ @Coinsreporter 25 Apr

Money laundering is a crime, so whoever does it is a criminal. I won't say a single word in support of criminals.

101 sats \ 0 replies \ @yo2xncv0 25 Apr

fuck off

0 sats \ 0 replies \ @02d2eee6a6 25 Apr

I wonder if this guy tought he really would get away with it 🤣

0 sats \ 0 replies \ @Jer 24 Apr

This epoch is going to be such a bloodbath and I'm here for it!

0 sats \ 2 replies \ @anon 24 Apr

If this is all it took to take down privacy on Bitcoin, was it all just larping?

111 sats \ 1 reply \ @kristapsk 24 Apr

There are better privacy solutions for Bitcoin than Samourai, their main advantage was being a mobile wallet.

1 sat \ 0 replies \ @yo2xncv0 25 Apr

Advantages and disadvantages to the different implementations out there, but they were the only 100% entropy coinjoins with whirlpool