The U.S. Treasury Division’s Monetary Crime Enforcement Community (“FinCEN”) is now going through critical questions after a brand new courtroom submitting reveals it charged the builders of Samourai Pockets with working an unlicensed cash transmitter—regardless of being advised by the related regulator that no license was required.
On Might 5, 2025, attorneys for Samourai Pockets founders Keonne Rodriguez and William Hill filed a letter to Choose Richard Berman within the Southern District of New York disclosing that FinCEN explicitly advised U.S. Division of Justice (DOJ) prosecutors in August 2023 that Samourai Pockets didn’t qualify as a Cash Companies Enterprise on account of its non-custodial nature. The DOJ moved ahead with the indictment anyway, and suppressed that exculpatory proof for over a 12 months.
“FinCEN’s steerage has usually centered on custody of cryptocurrency… As a result of Samourai doesn’t take ‘custody’… that might strongly recommend that Samourai is NOT performing as an MSB,” wrote the lead prosecutor in a 2023 inner e-mail simply revealed by the protection.
Regardless of this, Rodriguez and Hill had been arrested in April 2024 and accused of laundering over $100 million by Samourai Pockets, which allegedly facilitated $2 billion in illegal Bitcoin transactions. DOJ press releases on the time painted the service as a hub for darkish net cash laundering, with U.S. Legal professional Damian Williams stating that the defendants “knowingly facilitated the laundering of over $100 million of legal proceeds.”
However protection attorneys now argue the federal government’s personal communication with FinCEN undercuts the central cost of working with no license. “The related regulator advised the prosecutors that Samourai Pockets was not a cash transmitter… and the prosecutors went forward and indicted them anyway,” mentioned the Might 5 submitting.
The timing of this disclosure is particularly inconvenient, because it comes after the DOJ issued new inner steerage—often known as “Ending Regulation by Prosecution” (the “Blanche Memo”)—explicitly barring prosecutors from charging non-custodial software program instruments with unlicensed cash transmission. “It’s laborious to think about a clearer instance of regulation by prosecution,” the protection added. 
Zack Shapiro of the Bitcoin Coverage Institute summed it up in a viral tweet: “Simply revealed: FinCEN explicitly advised prosecutors Samourai Pockets wasn’t a cash transmitter on account of its non-custodial design; DOJ prosecuted builders anyway, suppressing exculpatory proof for a 12 months.”
The builders’ trial is about to start on November 3, 2025. Within the meantime, their attorneys are requesting a listening to to contemplate the federal government’s Brady violation and the opportunity of dismissal.
To learn extra in regards to the courtroom submitting, see the complete PDF beneath.
