New York prosecutors are reportedly considering dropping their case against Samourai Wallet co-founders Keonne Rodriguez and William Lonergan Hill, according to a Monday court filing.
In a joint letter to District Judge Richard Berman of the Southern District of New York (SDNY), both prosecutors and lawyers for Rodriguez and Hill requested that the case be granted a 16-day continuance, or extension, “while the Government determines its position” in response to the defense’s request that the case be dismissed.
The request comes after Hill and Rodriguez's lawyers had asked for the case to be terminated following U.S. Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche’s recent memo to the Department of Justice’s (DOJ) staff.
In his April 7 memo, Blanche announced that the DOJ’s crypto unit, the National Cryptocurrency Enforcement Team (NCET) would be disbanded, and instructed staff to no longer bring cases against crypto exchanges, mixing services, or offline wallets "for the acts of their end users or unwitting violations of regulations."
Blanche also ordered that any pending investigations not consistent with this new policy should be closed, and said that his office would work with the DOJ’s criminal division to “review ongoing cases for consistency with this policy.”
However, three days after Blanche’s memo, lawyers for Hill and Rodriguez sent a letter to SDNY prosecutors “requesting the dismissal of the superseding indictment under the Blanche Memo," according to Monday's filing. The parties then met on April 24 to discuss the request.
Last April, Rodriguez and Hill were charged with conspiracy to commit money laundering and conspiracy to operate an unlicensed money transmitting business. The charges carry a maximum sentence of 20 years and five years, respectively.
Prosecutors said Samourai Wallet had facilitated around $2 billion in “unlawful transactions” between 2015 and 2024, with the pair collecting a combined $4.5 million in fees.
