Samaurai Wallet lawyers are said to have been prevented by federal prosecutors that the advice that the firm does not require a license before they are charged by executives in the crypto mixing service months later.
On one May 5 Letter In a federal Manhattan court, lawyers for Samaurai co-founders Keonne Rodriguez and William Hill said prosecutors revealed that representatives of the Treasury Department of the US had told them before they charged the pair “that under the Fincen's guide, the Fincen Wallet app did not qualify as a money money ' demands a fincen license. “
“Surprisingly, six months later, both prosecutor criminals will be charged to Keonne Rodriguez and William Hill with operating such a business without a Fincen license,” the lawyers added.
The letter revealed that prosecutors were required to share their discussions with Fincen in Samaurai two weeks after they were unable to say the charges, making the deadline on May 8 last year, but instead “prevented this information for a year, revealed only on April 1, 2025.”
The prosecutors of Samaurai CEO Rodriguez and the chief technology Hill have charged with conspiracy to operate an unlicensed money sending business and money conspiracy on February 2024, accidentally charges and arrested the pair in April that year.
Samaurai's mixing service took the crypto from many users and combined it to hide its origins. The government has accused the platform of helping more than $ 2 billion in illegal transactions and facilitated more than $ 100 million worth of money losses from online black markets and scammers.
Both Rodriguez and Hill ask for sin.
In the letter, their lawyers said the prosecutors shared details of a call with Kevin O'Connor, chief of Virtual Assets and Emerging Technology Section in the Enforcement and Compliance Division, and Policy Division Staffer Lorena Valente.
According to an email from one of the prosecutors who summarize the call, Fincen said “because Samaurai does not take [money services business]. “
The email said O'Connor and Valente agreed that the government could try that Samaurai had operated properly controlling the crypto, “but it has not been addressed in the guide, and thus it can be a difficult argument” for prosecutors.
Samaurai's lawyers asked the hearing court to “to determine the events surrounding the late government's disclosure” and to oversee a remedy.
Samaurai to change bid dismissal if the case continues
Rodriguez and Hill's attorneys said that, using this latest information, they would again ask for the removal charges, focusing that they had no fair notice and “understood that they were acting legally.”
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Prosecutors and Samaurai asked the court more time on April 28 to consider the potential removal of the case after the Department of Justice restored the implementation of the crypto.
Rodriguez and Hill have been eager to remove the case in early April, focusing that it should be overthrown as Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche said in an April 7 memo that the Department of Justice will not persecute crypto mixers for “intolerance of regulations.”
In the latest letter, their lawyers said if the government would “prevent the Blanche Memo directive and push,” then they would ask to be removed as “if they are not sending money under Fincen's guide, then they cannot be prosecuted for not having a license.”
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