U.S. court has sentenced the creators of the popular Samourai Wallet, a tool used to conceal illicit transactions. The project’s CEO and CTO were found guilty of operating a money transmitting business and knowingly laundering money.
According to court documents, the service processed approximately $237 million linked to darknet markets, hacks, and other criminal activities. Both executives will now serve prison time.
CEO Keonne Rodriguez received a five-year sentence, while CTO William Lonergan Hill was sentenced to four years. U.S. Attorney Nicolas Roos emphasized that the use of cryptocurrency does not exempt individuals from liability for laundering criminal proceeds. Following their prison terms, both men will face three years of supervised release.
In addition to prison time, the court ordered each defendant to pay a $250,000 fine. Rodriguez and Hill have already forfeited $6.4 million to authorities. This amount represents the fees they earned from operations and satisfies part of a larger $238 million forfeiture order—the total volume of funds processed through the cryptocurrency mixer.
The scale of the operation was substantial. More than 80,000 Bitcoin — valued at over $2 billion at the time of the transactions — passed through the wallet's tools. The founders’ total revenue from fees exceeded $6 million.
Abetting Criminals
The investigation presented evidence that the developers fully understood their user base. Hill promoted the service on Dread, a popular darknet forum, marketing Samourai as the best method to "clean" Bitcoin and evade law enforcement.
Rodriguez also engaged directly with the criminal community. In 2020, he took to Twitter to encourage hackers to use one of their services to launder stolen funds, even expressing disappointment when the attackers opted for a competitor's mixer.
Funds processed through Samourai originated from drug trafficking, murder-for-hire schemes, sanctioned jurisdictions, and illicit content websites. The investigation was conducted by the FBI and IRS-CI, with assistance from Europol and the Portuguese Police. Hill was extradited from Portugal in July 2024.
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