Keonne Rodriguez and William Lonergan Hill, co-founders of Samourai Wallet, have entered a guilty plea in a New York court. Both founders pleaded guilty to engaging in an unlicensed money transmitting business, evading a more serious money laundering charge. The verdict was announced on July 30 by the Department of Justice as a major step in the fight against the crypto privacy technology.
Several hours after their plea, the details of the case were provided: the two were to lose more than $ 238 million. They have to pay up to 6.3 million dollars prior to the date of sentencing, scheduled to be November 2025.
The trial, which was handled by the hands of Judge Denise Cote, leaves both men in house arrest until the day of sentencing. Hill, who has also lived in Portugal, is now forced to remain in New York.
Source – X
Rodriguez Money Judgement just filed, sure. Judgement of 237 million (split with Hill), with 6.4 million payable on or before November 6 sentence date,” reads an important discussion on X. According to what @innercitypress posted, Hill’s sentencing is scheduled on November 7.
Rodríguez and Hill first disputed all charges when they were arrested in April 2024. Prosecutors said that the software allowed over 2 billion bitcoin transfers. Of that, hacks and scams contributed $250 million. Their plea agreement now leaves their possible sentence at five years instead of the twenty years that it could have been.
As part of the deal, the government dropped all accusations related to money laundering. Both parties are also giving up their appeal rights should the sentence be five years or less. This is a reflection of similar legal cases against developers of privacy tools such as Tornado Cash and demonstrates the growing interest in privacy tools within crypto.
According to court records, the privacy features of Samourai, including Whirlpool and Ricochet, allow users to conceal their transaction trails. Prosecutors stated that the tools concealed hundreds of millions of dollars involved in crime, dark web markets, and fraud.
In a communication retrieved by investigators, Rodriguez explained that mixing was referred to as money laundering with Bitcoin. Hill advertised the usage of Whirlpool on the darknet forums, as stated in the documents of indictment.
Defense lawyers pointed to official FinCEN guidance that the use of anonymizing software does not in itself mean a money transmitter business. Said the use of Samourai enabled users to keep their own financial details to themselves, such as shunning posting their bank accounts online. Nonetheless, the actions of Rodriguez and Hill resulted in the payment of more than 4.5 million in user fees until 2024.
The founders are awaiting sentencing in November 2025, and they could be sentenced to up to five years of federal imprisonment, as well as huge financial fines. Failure to pay the mandatory 6.3 million dollars by the date of sentencing is likely to result in additional asset confiscation. Their case, which is parallel to the prosecution of Tornado Cash, can set the course of action of many privacy-oriented crypto services.
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