The nearly $6.4 million worth of Bitcoin seized by federal law enforcement from the creators of privacy tool Samourai Wallet has not been liquidated, and will be added to a national Bitcoin reserve, a White House official said Friday.
A signed asset liquidation agreement between federal prosecutors and Samourai developers Keonne Rodriguez and William Lonergan Hill, reviewed by Decrypt, included language that potentially indicated a looming liquidation of the seized funds.
“Keonne Rodriguez and William Lonergan Hill authorize the USMS to receive the Bitcoin Account and immediately liquidate it in a manner dictated by the USMS,” the November agreement states, referencing the U.S. Marshals Service.
“Keonne Rodriguez and William Lonergan Hill authorize the USMS to deposit all funds received from the liquidation of the Bitcoin to the Assets Forfeiture Fund as voluntary payments and for application to their money judgments,” another section reads.
But on Friday, Patrick Witt, the executive director of President Trump’s Digital Assets Council, announced the DOJ confirmed to him that the digital assets forfeited by Samourai’s developers “have not been liquidated and will not be liquidated.”
The funds, Witt said, will in fact be added to the federal government’s strategic Bitcoin reserve.
Rodriguez and Hill both pleaded guilty last year to one criminal charge of operating an unlicensed money transmitter for their involvement in operating Samourai, a tool that allowed Bitcoin users to make their financial transactions private.
The case has attracted particular attention among crypto and privacy advocates concerned about its implications for the future development of privacy-related software in the United States.
But Rodriguez and Hill reported to federal prison days later, where they remain.
But it appears that Bitcoin was never, in fact, liquidated—regardless of prosecutors’ intentions.
Even after hearing the White House’s announcement Friday, Rodriguez’s wife, Lauren Emily Rodriguez, told Decrypt she remains skeptical about whether the Assistant U.S. Attorneys in the Samourai case have been forthright about what they did with funds seized from her husband.
“After seeing all the lies and manipulations done by the AUSAs in the Samourai case, I wouldn't put anything past them,” she said.
