Samourai Wallet Founders Sentenced for Laundering Over $237 Million in Criminal Proceeds
U.S. authorities have sentenced Samourai Wallet CEO Keonne Rodriguez and CTO William Lonergan Hill to multi-year prison terms for operating a cryptocurrency mixer that facilitated more than $237 million in illicit transactions.
The U.S. Attorney’s Office announced that Rodriguez, 37, and Hill, 67, knowingly operated Samourai Wallet as an illegal money-transmitting business designed to move criminal proceeds tied to drug trafficking, darknet marketplaces, cyber intrusions, fraud, sanctioned jurisdictions, murder-for-hire schemes, and a child-pornography site.
Rodriguez was sentenced to five years in prison on Nov. 6, 2025, while Hill received a four-year sentence on Nov. 19, 2025. Both sentences were handed down by U.S. District Judge Denise L. Cote.
DOJ: “Serious consequences” for laundering crypto-linked criminal proceeds
“The sentences the defendants received send a clear message that laundering known criminal proceeds—regardless of whether the funds are in fiat or cryptocurrency—will face serious consequences,” said Nicolas Roos, Attorney for the United States. He added that money laundering services directly harm victims by making stolen funds nearly impossible to recover.
Samourai Wallet Built to Obscure Illicit Transactions
According to court filings, Rodriguez and Hill built Samourai Wallet beginning in 2015 with the explicit goal of concealing the source and destination of illegal funds. Two core features were central to their operation:
- Whirlpool (Bitcoin mixing service): batched BTC transactions from multiple users to hide the origin of funds on the blockchain.
- Ricochet (transaction “hopping” service): added extra, unnecessary intermediary transactions to make tracing even more difficult.
Between 2017 and 2025, over 80,000 Bitcoin—valued at more than $2 billion at the time—moved through these services, generating over $6 million in fees for Samourai.
Evidence Shows Direct Promotion to Criminal Users
Court documents revealed that both founders openly marketed Samourai to darknet and illicit actors:
- Hill promoted Whirlpool on Dread, a darknet forum, calling it a superior tool to “clean dirty BTC.”
- Rodriguez encouraged hackers during a 2020 Twitter exchange to launder stolen cryptocurrency through Samourai’s mixing services.
- In private WhatsApp messages, Rodriguez described mixing as “money laundering for bitcoin.”
Samourai’s internal marketing also acknowledged that users included “Dark/Grey Market participants” moving proceeds from “illicit activity.”
Penalties, Forfeiture, and International Coordination
In addition to their prison sentences, both Rodriguez and Hill received:
- Three years of supervised release
- $250,000 fine each
- More than $6.36 million forfeited, representing Samourai’s collected fees
The forfeiture satisfies a broader order to surrender $237,832,360.55, the total traceable criminal proceeds processed through Samourai Wallet.
Hill was arrested in Portugal and extradited to the United States in July 2024 with assistance from Europol, Portuguese authorities, Icelandic Police, and the Justice Department’s Office of International Affairs.
The case was prosecuted by the Complex Frauds and Cybercrime Unit and the Illicit Finance and Money Laundering Unit of the U.S. Attorney’s Office.
