Samourai Wallet Claims DOJ Hiding FinCEN Guidance, What Happened?

Updated

May 7, 2025

Gambar Samourai Wallet Claims DOJ Hiding FinCEN Guidance, What Happened?

Jakarta, Pintu News – The legal battle involving privacy-focused crypto platform Samourai Wallet has taken a surprising turn.

The legal team of Samourai Wallet founders Keonne Rodriguez and William Hill accused federal prosecutors of withholding essential guidance from the US Treasury Department that could have cleared their names before charges were filed.

Check out the full news here!

Late Disclosure by Prosecutors

In a letter filed with a Manhattan federal court on May 5, Samourai’s legal team accused prosecutors of suppressing conversations with the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) six months before Rodriguez and Hill were indicted.

According to the letter, FinCEN officials stated that the Samourai Wallet app does not meet the criteria of being a “Money Services Business” (MSB) according to existing guidelines. This means that the platform does not require a FinCEN license to operate, directly contradict the central claim of the government’s case.

Prosecutors allegedly missed the disclosure deadline set for May 8, 2024, just two weeks after the indictment was unsealed. However, disclosure only occurred a year later, on April 1, 2025, well past the deadline.

FinCEN Internal Position: Samourai Did Not Take Custody

A key defense from the legal team is an internal email from a prosecutor summarizing a conversation with FinCEN. The email reveals that Kevin O’Connor, head of FinCEN’s Virtual Assets and Emerging Technologies section, and Lorena Valente of the Policy Division, stated that since Samourai did not take “custody” of users’ crypto by having a private key to the address where the crypto was stored, this strongly suggests that Samourai was not acting as an MSB.

Also read: SEC Releases Agenda for Tokenization Discussion to Be Held on May 12, 2025!

Liberation Motion Update

Following these revelations, Rodriguez and Hill’s legal team is preparing to refile a motion for acquittal, arguing that their clients were not given fair warning that their actions were illegal. They also asked the court to hold a hearing to investigate why these FinCEN communications were withheld and to consider sanctions or other remedies.

This court filing comes days after the Department of Justice demonstrated a shift in crypto law enforcement. Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche stated in an April 7 memo that the DOJ would not pursue crypto mixer cases based on “unintentional violations” of vague regulations.

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