Samourai Wallet indictment and Whirlpool coordinator seizure (April 2024)
U.S. authorities seized the Whirlpool coordinator server and arrested the Samourai Wallet developers on conspiracy-to-commit-money-laundering and unlicensed-money-transmission charges in April 2024.
What happened
- April 24, 2024: U.S. DOJ unseals indictments against Keonne Rodriguez and William Lonergan Hill, the developers of Samourai Wallet.
- The Whirlpool coordinator infrastructure is seized; the Samourai web site is taken over by U.S. authorities.
- Charges: conspiracy to commit money laundering (18 USC 1956(h)) and operating an unlicensed money-transmitting business (18 USC 1960).
- The prosecution's theory: the developers operated a money-transmitting business (the coordinator), not just software, and the coordinator processed funds traceable to illicit sources.
- Trial of Roman Storm (Tornado Cash developer) on parallel charges occurred in summer 2024 — referenced widely in discussions of the Samourai case.
Why it matters
The Samourai case is the defining 2024 test of whether developers of self-custody coinjoin software can be held criminally liable for the activity that flows through their software. The outcome shapes operator-side risk calculus for every privacy-tool developer going forward. For users, it removed one of the major Bitcoin coinjoin coordinators from the durable list — the Samourai brand is no longer a trusted identity.
Status in 2026
Case is pending. The Whirlpool coordinator remains seized. Samourai-branded binaries circulating after April 2024 should be treated as untrusted unless the provenance is verifiable. Forks of the Samourai client (Sentinel-style) and alternative Bitcoin coinjoin coordinators (Wasabi forks, JoinMarket) cover the use case.
Related directory entries
- Samourai Wallet / Whirlpool seized · none kyc
- Wasabi Wallet degraded · none kyc
- JoinMarket active · none kyc
Sources
Explainer reviewed .
Cite as: https://fuckyc.org/explainers/samourai-wallet-indictment-2024/