Co-founders of Samourai Wallet and American public prosecutors have asked a federal court to postpone legal proceedings when weighing a possible dismissal of the case.
In a April 28 letter To Richard Berman’s assessment, Samourai Wallet Defense Attorneys said that they had jointly requested a 16-day expansion of the scheme of the Pretial Motions with the government.
If approved, the new timeline would push the deadline for motions to 29 May, with answers on 26 June and answers before 10 July. The test date, which is currently planned for the beginning of November, would remain unchanged.
Samourai wallet CEO Keonne Rodriguez and CTO William Hill were sued in April 2024 by the US Department of Justice for alleged running of a company with money transmitting and money laundering of more than $ 100 million via the platform. Rodriguez was arrested in the US, while Hill was held in Portugal and waiting for extradition.
According to the letter of 28 April, Defense Attorneys met for Samourai CEO Keonne Rodriguez and CTO William Hill on 24 April public prosecutors to drop the charges. They argued that it would be a “considerable costs” to prepare movements, while the Doj still “determines its position” about whether or not it will continue.
Public Prosecutors reportedly agreed to the delay “without giving any opinion about the merits,” the letter noted.
The joint request for a delay comes on the heels of a major policy reputation within the Ministry of Justice.
At the beginning of April, deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche issued a memo that the National Cryptocurrency Enforcement Team from Doj was dissolved, a task group that was established under the BIDEN-Administration to pursue crypto-related crimes.
Blanche criticized the “reckless strategy of the prosecution” of the previous government and clearly stated that the DOJ “is not a digital assets regulator”.
The memo insisted on prosecutors to limit enforcement efforts to matters with direct criminal damage, such as fraud against investors or the use of digital assets to facilitate serious violations.
Lawyers representing Samourai had initially written to Acting Manhattan US Attorney Jay Clayton on 10 April, only a few days after the Doj Memo, in which the case was formally rejected in the light of the revised Crypto enforcement stand of the department.
While the DOJ previously viewed platforms such as enablers of illegal activities, the new guidance requires a narrower scope of enforcement that is not only aimed at making privacy tools on developers.
In other cases, reference was made to the policy shift. On April 9, Safemoon CEO Breen Karony Brewing the Memo van Blanche to ask a judge in New York drop His fraud and securities costs and claim that they no longer match the updated attitude of the Doj.
