Keonne Rodriguez, one of the founders of Samourai Wallet, a Bitcoin wallet seen by some as a mixer and by others as a privacy-protecting application, pleaded not guilty to the charges against him and was released by the court on a $1 million bond.

He will not be able to trade

Rodriguez will be able to be found in certain areas in Pennsylvania and New York. He will also have to carry a device that shows his location at all times. The Samourai founder will appear before the judge once again on May 14. Rodriguez is also banned from directly or indirectly trading cryptocurrency.

He faces up to 20 years in prison…

William Hill, the Samourai Wallet technology manager who was arrested in Portugal on the same day as Rodriguez, has not yet appeared in court and no decision has been made. It is stated that extradition procedures are still ongoing for Hill. Both executives face 20 years in prison each on money laundering allegations.

As it is known, the authorities took control of Samourai Wallet’s servers in Iceland. The Office of Foreign Assets Control under the US Treasury Department also banned two mixer applications, Blender and Tornado Cash, last year.

The events received a great reaction from the cryptocurrency industry.

US officials claim that the hacker group lazarus, which is affiliated with North Korea, launders money through such applications and that North Korea’s nuclear program is supported by the money laundered from here.