Today in the Southern District of New York, the first US Department of Justice (DoJ) hearing took place. case against the developers of Samourai Wallet Keonne Rodriguez and William Lonergan Hill.
I attended the first hearing of the #Samurai Wallet case earlier today on behalf of @BitcoinMagazine and spoke briefly with one of the defendants, Keonne Rodriguez, after the hearing.
Here is a summary of what I learned: pic.twitter.com/QZN4Ape0CZ
– Frank Corva (@frankcorva) May 28, 2024
The two developers were arrested at the end of April and charged with money laundering and operating an unlicensed money transmitting business.
Only Rodriguez and his lawyer, Michael Krouse, were in the courtroom today, because Hill is still in Portugal and has not yet responded to an extradition request from the U.S. government.
The prosecution said it was about to engage in discovery (sharing evidence it plans to use for trial with the defendants) and was ready for trial, whether Hill and Rodriguez are present or not.
“Substantial discovery”
The prosecution also said it has not yet extracted all the data from the electronic devices it confiscated from Rodriguez, but will provide “substantial findings” based on the information it has obtained so far. 'now.
And he said he was still waiting for Rodriguez to hand over a 2 terabyte hard drive that the defendant still has in his possession.
No details were provided about what data might be on the hard drive.
A letter from two senators
Rodriguez's attorney said he plans to file a motion to dismiss the indictment of his client and his client's partner at Samourai, citing a letter that U.S. Senators Cynthia Lummis (R-WY) and Ron Wyden (D-OR) sent to Attorney General Merrick Garland in which the two politicians argued that non-custodial crypto software cannot be a transmission service silver.
“We write to express our serious concerns regarding recent policy arguments by the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) that significantly expand the scope of the federal ban on operating an unlicensed money transmitting business,” the letter begins .
“The DOJ's unprecedented interpretation of this law in the context of non-custodial crypto asset software services contradicts clear Congressional intent and authoritative guidance from the Department of Commerce's Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN). Treasure. This interpretation threatens to criminalize Americans offering non-custodial crypto asset software services,” added Senators Lummis and Wyden.
The letter also acknowledges that “non-custodial crypto service providers cannot be classified as money transmitting businesses because users of these services retain sole possession and control of their crypto assets.”
Move forward
The judge announced that Rodriguez would remain under house arrest and the next hearing in the case would be on September 4, 2024 at 11:30 a.m. EST.
Those interested in donating to the Samurai Developers Legal Defense Fund can do so via this fundraiser set up by the Bitcoin Policy Institute (BPI).