Samourai Wallet Co-Founder Sentenced To 4 Years In Prison

William “Bill” Hill, co-founder of Bitcoin mixing service Samourai Wallet, has been sentenced to four years in prison for operating an unlicensed money transmitting business that processed over $237 million in criminal proceeds. According to journalist Frank Corva, Hill pleaded guilty in July in the Southern District of New York, admitting that the platform he co-founded was used to conceal illicit funds from activities such as drug trafficking, darknet marketplaces, cyber intrusions, fraud, sanctioned jurisdictions, murder-for-hire schemes, and a child pornography website.

His co-founder, Keonne Rodriguez, received a five-year sentence for his involvement in the scheme. Prosecutors revealed that Hill and Rodriguez actively promoted Samourai Wallet to criminal users on darknet forums and internally recognized that its mixing process functioned as “money laundering for Bitcoin.” The pair ran Samourai Wallet’s Whirlpool and Ricochet services to obscure the origins of criminal proceeds from various illegal activities.

Whirlpool coordinated Bitcoin exchanges between users, while Ricochet added multiple transaction “hops” to make tracing more difficult. Over 80,000 Bitcoin, worth more than $2 billion at the time, flowed through the services from 2017 to 2019, generating over $6 million in fees, according to prosecutors. Court records indicate that Rodriguez and Hill actively encouraged criminal use through Samourai Wallet, with Rodriguez describing the services as “money laundering for bitcoin” and Hill promoting Whirlpool on a darknet forum as making illicit funds “untraceable.”

In addition to promoting illegal activities, the pair publicly urged hackers to launder stolen funds following a 2020 social media hack. Hill’s sentence was reduced due to his age and recent autism diagnosis, with the judge allowing him to serve three years of supervised release from Lisbon and imposing a $250,000 fine. This case highlights a growing crackdown on privacy-focused crypto tools, following similar prosecutions of developers of platforms like Tornado Cash.

At the same time, Keonne Rodriguez, CEO of Samourai Wallet, was sentenced to five years in prison for his involvement in the money laundering scheme. Rodriguez’s sentencing, handed down by U.S. District Judge Denise Cote in Manhattan, followed an hour-long hearing. Rodriguez and Hill were arrested in April 2024 and charged with conspiracy to commit money laundering and operating an unlicensed money transmitting business.

The Department of Justice framed the case as part of a wider crackdown on crypto mixing services, emphasizing the defendants’ active promotion of illicit fund laundering, which undermined trust in digital assets. As the industry continues to evolve, it is essential for developers and users of crypto platforms to prioritize transparency and compliance with regulations to prevent such illegal activities from tarnishing the reputation of the crypto space.