reSee.it - Tweets Saved By @isabellasg3
reSee.it AI Summary
Two devs go to prison for writing CODE. Samourai Wallet creators pleaded guilty for doing BY THE LAW. The DOJ doesn’t want you to know: regulators said it was legal; evidence hidden a year (Brady); Trump memo says don’t prosecute devs; 50 armed FBI agents raided; Judge Berman swapped for Cote.
@isabellasg3 - isa⚡️
Two software developers are going to prison for writing CODE. The creators of Samourai Wallet have pleaded guilty for doing everything BY THE LAW. Here’s what the DOJ doesn’t want you to know: • They asked regulators if it was legal they were told YES • DOJ hid that evidence for a year (Brady violation) • Trump’s memo says don’t prosecute developers • 50 armed FBI agents raided their homes for no reason • Judge Berman was mysteriously swapped out for Judge Cote without explaination
Video Transcript AI Summary
The Samurai Wallet software developers, Kiano Rodriguez (37) and William Hill (67), are going to spend the next five years and the next four years in prison for writing an open-source, non-custodial Bitcoin wallet that kept users’ Bitcoin private. The speaker says this case wasn’t a fair trial and mirrors the corruption of the system, noting the court pulled out 2018 text messages from conversations with friends. In those messages, Keanu explains that mixing Bitcoin is about privacy, not crime, and is a way for people not to be tracked or to see how much Bitcoin they own, since Bitcoin is a public ledger. He jokes that it’s “money laundering for Bitcoin,” but the court only highlighted the money-laundering aspect.
Six months before the charges, FinCEN (“the actual money transmission regulators”) asked them if they were breaking the law, and they said no, because Samurai Wallet does not take custody of funds. The DOJ allegedly buried that information for years, a year after they said they weren’t breaking the law, which the speaker calls a complete violation. The judge is described as not caring. The speaker says Samurai Wallet operated legally for ten years with legal advice and never took custody of anyone’s Bitcoin, so they were not a financial institution, merely a service. Last year, 50 FBI agents raided Rodriguez’s house, treated him as if he were El Chapo.
The speaker cites a memo by Tom Blanch, Trump’s deputy attorney general, from April stating that software developers should not be prosecuted because they are not committing the crime—described as “ending regulation by prosecution.” The claim is that arresting coders is absurd, likening it to jailing Bill Gates for creating Microsoft or jailing the CEO of OnlyFans for its content.
Additionally, the speakers allege the defendants were obligated to hand over over $6,000,000 worth of Bitcoin to the New York Justice Department and sold it within the first hour, contrary to higher-level statements about how Bitcoin should be held. They criticize the situation as a retreat from privacy and liken it to a repeated, dangerous playbook seen in other cases, such as Ross Ulbricht.
There is hope, as Trump reportedly took 37 seconds to analyze the Samurai Wallet case and asked a lawyer to see if a pardon is possible. A petition to help them is mentioned, along with a donation option to their families, with a link promised below.
The speaker then promotes Casa, stating they enable self-custody wallets with multisig, multiple fail-safes, inheritance planning, and hardware wallets, offering one-on-one support and a code “YOLO” with $200 off or 10% off, and promises a link below.
Full Transcript
Speaker 0: The Samurai Wallet software developers are going to prison for writing code. Kiano Rodriguez, who is 37, and William Hill, who is 67, they're gonna spend the next five years and the next four years in prison. All because they invented a Bitcoin wallet that was open source. They were one of the few wallets that was non custodial, did not hold people's Bitcoin, and had a feature that kept people's Bitcoin private. This case wasn't even put on a fair trial.
Rather, it's been a mirror to the corruption of the system that we're living in. The court is pulling out messages from twenty eighteen from conversations he was having with friends. So in the text message, Keanu is explaining to his friend how mixing Bitcoin is more about privacy, how it's not about crime, and it's a way for people not to be, like, tracked, you know, and not to see how much Bitcoin they own. Because if you know about Bitcoin, you know that Bitcoin is a public ledger and it can be easily traceable and people can know how much Bitcoin you own. So in order to give him like this huge explanation, he cracks a joke and says, it's like money laundering for Bitcoin.
In court, they only put the money laundering part. And you know how much the government loves to relate Bitcoin to money laundering. God forbid, people don't use cash to money launder. God forbid people don't use cash only places to money launder. Okay, and here's where it gets wild.
Six months before they were charged, Finson is the actual money transmission regulators. So supposedly, like, they know what they're talking about. Anyways, the DOJ asks them if they were breaking the law. And you know what they said? No.
That they were not breaking the law. They were not breaking the law. Because Samurai Wallet does not take custody of their funds. What's even crazier is that the DOJ buried that information and kept it hidden for years. Okay.
For a year. Which is a complete violation, meaning they already broke the law, the DOJ, I mean, not the actual samurai wallet holders, and the judge didn't even care. Honestly, this is ridiculous. Look, the truth is, Samurai Wallet operated legally for ten years with legal advice. They never took custody of anyone's Bitcoin, so they weren't like a financial institution or anything.
They were just a service. And last year, 50 FBI agents raided his house like he was El Chapo or something. What's even crazier is I don't understand why they're being prosecuted when literally Tom Blanche, Trump's deputy attorney, issued a memo in April saying how they're not gonna prosecute software developers because software developers are not committing the crime. It is literally called ending regulation by prosecution because they even know how absurd it is to arrest coders. That's like putting Bill Gates in jail for creating Microsoft because drug dealers use Excel or putting the CEO of OnlyFans in jail because of the content that is on her website.
No. And the it gets even crazier. They were even obligated to send over $6,000,000 worth of Bitcoin to the New York justice department, and they sold all that Bitcoin, which again, they're avoiding the laws that Trump is saying because Trump said that any Bitcoin they receive must be held for ten years. And you know what they did? They sold it within the first hour.
What the hell is happening with America? Like, they're not even going to spend Christmas with their families because they built a Bitcoin wallet. What's crazy to me is that they were trying to keep Bitcoin private, and they're getting in trouble for it. Like, what the heck is happening? This is the same playbook we've seen over the past decades.
We saw this with Ross Ulbrich. Ross had two life sentences for building a website. His sentencing was to teach everybody else a lesson to not mess with them. They are trying to scare us by making privacy scary and evil. Like, no.
There is hope because it has been brought up to Trump's attention about the whole samurai wallet. Trump took thirty seven seconds to analyze this and have one of his lawyers look into it to see if he can pardon Keanu and Will. There's a petition that you can sign so you can help them out, and you can also donate to their families. I'm going to put the link below so you can sign this petition and hope that they get released because it's not fair to write code and then have bad people use it and then you go to prison for it rather than the bad people. This case made me realize how dangerous it is to have a single point of failure with your Bitcoin.
That's why I partnered with Casa. They let you self custody your wallets with multisig. They have multiple fail safe mechanisms so you can keep your Bitcoin safe. And they also have inheritance planning so if you you can pass on your Bitcoin to your family. They have different plans, and you can literally have one on one support.
They give you hardware wallets. It's honestly a seamless process. With the code YOLO, they give you $200 off or 10% off. I'm gonna put the link below, and thank you Casa for sponsoring.