I have written about this several times, that despite the friendly policy of the US government towards cryptocurrencies, there are certain rules that cannot be violated. Any attempts that will not allow the government to conduct blockchain analysis will be punished by criminal cases that will last a very long time.
What rules was violated here? How can a service that doesn't hold custody of funds be charged with unlicensed money transmitting charges, does not make sense to me. The prosecution even consulted finCEN about the charges, of which they have been educated that Samourai does not fall under a money service business and hence they do not need that license. What is obvious here is not a violation, but an abuse of law and an overreach.
These are excerpts from articles posted by alani123:
"The developers, Keonne Rodriguez and William Lonergan Hill, are facing charges of conspiracy to commit money laundering and operating an unlicensed money transmitting business."
"U.S. Attorney Damian Williams said: “As alleged, Keonne Rodriguez and William Lonergan Hill are responsible for developing, marketing, and operating Samourai, a cryptocurrency mixing service that executed over $2 billion in unlawful transactions and served as a haven for criminals to engage in large-scale money laundering. Rodriguez and Hill allegedly knowingly facilitated the laundering of over $100 million of criminal proceeds from the Silk Road, Hydra Market, and a host of other computer hacking and fraud campaigns. Together with our law enforcement partners, we will continue to relentlessly pursue and dismantle criminal organizations that use cryptocurrency to hide illicit conduct.” "
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I'm not an expert on American law, but I draw a simple conclusion that only those cryptocurrency companies that have the same tight controls as banks don't have problems in the US.
