In a letter filed today to the Southern District of New York (SDNY), prosecutors in the Samourai wallet case said they had not withheld exculpy evidence and petitioned the judge to denial a request for defense of the hearing to discuss the later disclosure of important information obtained by the prosecutor almost two years ago.
Earlier in the week, the defense stated in a letter learning that Finsen had “strongly suggested” that the Samourai wallet was not acting as a financial nature due to the non-radical nature of the product in discussions between certain Finsen members (details of the two sections below these two sections) and on August 23, 2023.
This information was revealed thanks to Brady’s moves submitted by the defense. (This type of movement is named after the 1963 Brady v. Maryland Supreme Court case, which established Brady rules.
Given that one of the two claims facing Samourai developers is a conspiracy to run an unauthorized remittance business, some people felt this new information could be revealed.
No dismissal, no hearing
However, a letter from prosecutors today states that they have no intention of dropping the case, and does not feel that the hearing requested by the defense is justified.
“There is no basis for the hearing, and there is no relief. The disclosure itself indicates that the government is not violating Brady,” the prosecutor said in the letter. “The government disclosed all known substantive communications between the prosecutor’s team and Fincen, months before the trial.”
The prosecutor highlighted the conspiracy to commit money laundering, the second charge, and added that he plans to proceed with the case.
“As allegedly, Samourai has washed more than $100 million in criminal revenue from other criminal sources: illegal dark web markets such as the Silk Road and the Hydra market. Prosecutors wrote.
Downplay input from Fincen
Furthermore, the prosecutors argued that the fact that he recently disclosed communications with Fincen was unrelated to the case, as many of the acts claimed were not dependent on Fincen regulations.
They also downplayed the importance of what Fincen employees shared with prosecutors: Kevin O’Conner (the emerging technology section of Fincen’s virtual assets chief and enforcement and compliance department) and Lorena Valente (the employee of Fincen’s policy department when she spoke to the lawsuit).
The prosecutor called O’Conner and Valente’s opinions “personal, informal and warning,” adding that they had already provided “substantial email communications between the prosecutor’s team and members of Fincen in connection with the August 23, 2023 call.”
They went on to say, “Individual Fincen employees have not spoken on behalf of Fincen, and have not provided Fincen’s opinion and “didn’t decide what Fincen would decide whether this question was presented to Fincen’s policy committee.” ”
There are no Brady violations
In the final section of the letter, the prosecutor argued that if he had not provided specific details with Fincen on August 23, 2023, he was not violated by not providing specific details with Fincen up to this point in the pre-trial process.
“This record shows that there was no Brady violation in this case,” the prosecutor wrote.
“The government responded to requests for this information, and disclosed the content of this informal conversation as defense before the pretrial move, about seven months before the trial,” they added. “We don’t need any more.”
Finally, according to the Second Circuit ruling, which prosecutors mentioned in the letter, the government has not taken away from the defense of the legitimate process as long as it has Brady evidence in time for effective use.
What’s coming next?
It is unclear when Judge Berman will respond to today’s letter from the prosecutors.
The opening moves of the defense were originally scheduled for today, but have now retreated for two weeks. A week after the opening move, the prosecutors respond to the opening ceremony of the defense.
At the time of the final pre-trial hearing, the prosecutors are expected to provide expert disclosures on July 15, 2025, and by August 8, 2025, the defense is expected to provide theirs.
The trial is scheduled to begin on November 3, 2025.
If you wish to donate to the Defense Fund for Samourai developers, you can do so through the P2P Rights Fund.
