Samourai Wallet Developer Sentenced to Five Years for Unlicensed Money Transmitting

Samourai Wallet developer Keonne Rodriguez has been sentenced to five years in prison for his role in creating a bitcoin mixing service prosecutors say was used to launder $237 million. Fellow developer William Lonergan Hill is due to be sentenced later this month.

District Judge Denise Cote of the Southern District of New York (SDNY) handed down the statutory maximum for the crime Rodriguez pleaded guilty to — conspiracy to operate an unlicensed money transmitting business. Speaking at a federal courthouse in Manhattan, Cote said the sentence was necessary for both individual and general deterrence and expressed concern over a letter Rodriguez submitted ahead of sentencing.

> “The defendant engaged over a period of years in very serious, anti-social criminal behaviour. I don’t understand his letter to reflect that he’s come to terms with that,” Cote said. > > “He identifies his motivation as a desire to protect financial privacy. That’s fine, we all want financial privacy. But I don’t think that’s really what was at stake here…There is no acknowledgement in that letter of the criminal world for whom digital currency is a gift.”

Prosecutors told the court that Rodriguez actively encouraged hackers, sanctions evaders and other criminals to use Samourai Wallet. He was aware he was breaking the law, they argued, citing a six-page escape plan found in his home detailing the use of burner phones, cash motels, and remote routes to evade authorities.

> “The letter directly reflects that the defendant has not come to terms with what he did,” prosecutors said, urging the judge to impose the maximum sentence. In their October 31 sentencing memo, they wrote that Rodriguez and Hill had knowingly laundered proceeds from “drug trafficking, darknet marketplaces, cyber-intrusions, frauds, murder-for-hire schemes, and a child pornography website” through the wallet.

Rodriguez’s legal team had sought a more lenient term of one year and a day. His lead attorney, Michael Kim Krouse of Arnold and Porter, described Rodriguez, now 37, as an idealistic young co-founder who had been motivated by family stories of financial loss in Cuba. Krouse also highlighted that Rodriguez had voluntarily pleaded guilty and had paid a $6.3 million forfeiture agreement ahead of sentencing — a move he described as “unusual.”

Addressing the court directly, Rodriguez said:

> “I am truly sorry and I understand the seriousness of my crime. I am remorseful. I can say, truly, that I will never break the law again. This experience has been dreadful.”

Despite these pleas, Cote remained firm. “The letter indicated to me that you were very much still operating in a world with moral blinders on,” she said before imposing a 60-month prison term. Rodriguez will also face a three-year probation period after release and a $250,000 fine. Cote ruled that 50% of any earnings from prison work programmes would go toward the fine, with 25% of gross monthly earnings garnished post-release until it is fully paid.

Rodriguez and Hill were arrested in April 2024 and charged with conspiracy to commit money laundering and conspiracy to operate an unlicensed money transmitting business. After more than a year of legal proceedings, they reached a plea agreement in July, with the money laundering charge dropped in exchange for guilty pleas on the lesser unlicensed money transmitting charge.