The trial of Samourai Wallet’s co-founders is moving forward with new deadlines set in court.
According to The Rage, during a hearing held on March 18 in Manhattan, dates were scheduled for the criminal trial against Keonne Rodriguez and William Lonergan Hill, the co-founders of Samourai Wallet.
The trial schedule
During the hearing, Judge Richard Berman of the Southern District of New York established the timeline for the proceedings. Pre-trial motions will begin on May 7, with oral arguments scheduled for July 16 at 10:00 AM. The actual trial against the creators of Samourai Wallet is set to begin on November 3.
Hill, who is currently residing in Portugal while on pre-trial release, has been granted a preliminary exemption from attending pre-trial hearings due to travel costs. Other procedural deadlines include July 15 for the prosecution to disclose expert witnesses and August 8 as the deadline for the defense to reveal its own expert witnesses.
The charges
Rodriguez and Hill were charged in April 2024 with conspiracy to commit money laundering and conspiracy to operate an unlicensed money transmission business. Samourai Wallet was a non-custodial wallet that allowed users to conduct CoinJoin transactions to break the on-chain traceability of funds.
The fact that the two are charged only with conspiracy, rather than direct money laundering or operating an unlicensed money transmission service, may indicate weaknesses in the prosecution’s case, according to The Rage. The indictment does not claim that the duo actively collaborated with known criminal entities, despite federal prosecutors alleging that they “knowingly facilitated the laundering of over $100 million in criminal proceeds.”
Factors that could influence the trial
Certain elements could work against Hill and Rodriguez in a jury trial, The Rage suggests. The prosecution claims that Samourai earned $4.5 million in fees for its services. Additionally, records from Twitter and private messages presented by the prosecution indicate that Hill and Rodriguez were aware of their service’s appeal to actors in the gray and black markets, which could negatively influence a jury. Samourai also operated its own CoinJoin server in Iceland as part of its mixing services, another aspect that could be used by the prosecution.
The hearing was the first since September 2024, when Rodriguez’s motion to end his pre-trial house arrest was denied by Judge Berman.
