Keonne Rodriguez and William Lonergan Hill, co-founders of the cryptocurrency mixing service Samourai Wallet, have been sentenced to five and four years in prison, respectively. The sentencing was announced by Nicolas Roos, Attorney for the United States acting under authority conferred by 28 U.S.C. § 515. U.S. District Judge Denise L. Cote sentenced Rodriguez on November 6, 2025, and Hill on November 19, 2025.
Samourai Wallet facilitated over $237 million in illegal transactions. Prosecutors stated that Rodriguez and Hill operated a money transmitting business that knowingly processed criminal proceeds from activities such as drug trafficking, darknet marketplace transactions, cyber-intrusions, frauds, sanctioned jurisdictions violations, murder-for-hire schemes, and child pornography websites.
“The sentences the defendants received send a clear message that laundering known criminal proceeds—regardless of the technology used or whether the proceeds are in the form of fiat or cryptocurrency—will face serious consequences,” said Attorney for the United States Nicolas Roos. “These sentences reflect the harmful impact that money laundering services have on victims by making it virtually impossible for victims to recover their stolen funds. Our office will continue to work tirelessly to hold accountable those who profit by helping criminals hide their criminal proceeds.”
Court records indicate that since around 2015, Rodriguez and Hill developed Samourai as a mobile application designed to transmit criminal proceeds. Two features were central: “Whirlpool,” a Bitcoin mixing service launched in 2019 that obscured transaction origins within blockchain records; and “Ricochet,” introduced in 2017 to insert additional intermediate transactions between addresses to further complicate tracing efforts. Together these services handled more than 80,000 Bitcoin—valued at over $2 billion at the time—and generated more than $6 million in fees for Samourai.
Investigators also found evidence that both men promoted Samourai specifically to criminal users through forums like Dread—a darknet site discussing illegal marketplaces—and social media exchanges encouraging hackers to use their service for laundering illicit gains. In one WhatsApp exchange referenced during trial proceedings, Rodriguez described “mixing” as “money laundering for bitcoin.” Their marketing materials openly identified likely customers as participants in dark or grey markets dealing with illicit activity.
In addition to prison terms, both men received three years of supervised release and must each pay a $250,000 fine. They have paid over $6.3 million in forfeiture related to Samourai’s earnings but remain subject to an order forfeiting over $237 million—the full sum tied to traceable criminal transactions through their platform.
The investigation involved collaboration between Internal Revenue Service-Criminal Investigation (IRS-CI), the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), Europol, Portuguese Judicial Police and prosecutors from multiple jurisdictions including Portugal and Iceland. The Justice Department’s Office of International Affairs played a key role in securing Hill’s extradition from Portugal in July 2024.
Assistant U.S. Attorneys Andrew K. Chan, David R. Felton, and Cecilia Vogel prosecuted this case within the Office’s Complex Frauds and Cybercrime Unit along with its Illicit Finance and Money Laundering Unit.
