The U.S. Department of Justice has requested the maximum sentence of five years in prison for Keonne Rodriguez and William Hill, developers of Samourai Wallet, who pleaded guilty to conspiring to operate an unlicensed money transmission business. Prosecutors argue that both men built the platform to enable money laundering through privacy functions intentionally designed to hide the origin of illegal funds.
According to the sentencing memorandum, Samourai allegedly processed at least $237 million connected to drug trafficking, darknet markets, fraud schemes, cyberattacks, and child exploitation materials. Prosecutors claim the defendants encouraged criminal users to adopt the wallet and that their business model relied on evading financial regulations. Although the charges for money laundering and sanctions evasion were dropped as part of the plea agreement, the government maintains that the software’s original purpose was to facilitate crime.
Samourai Wallet: Black Market Money
The filing cites private messages, forum posts, and public statements in which the developers referred to Bitcoin as “black market money” and expressed opposition to anti-money laundering laws. The prosecution further argues that tools such as Whirlpool and Ricochet were built to bypass blockchain tracing by layering transactions in ways that made it nearly impossible to link deposits to withdrawals.
Investigators also allege that, despite marketing itself as a privacy wallet, Samourai retained enough user data to trace transactions—something discovered after authorities seized its servers. Hill countered that this data collection was required to calculate wallet balances and affected only a small subset of users.
Pushing The Boundaries Of Privacy
In letters to the court, the Samourai developers requested a sentence limited to time already served. Hill argued that his intent was to defend privacy and individual freedom against government overreach and maintained that he believed the project operated within legal boundaries.
The defense is supported by Professor David L. Yermack of New York University, who described the project as part of the cypherpunk legacy, emphasizing the use of cryptography to protect personal autonomy.
The sentencing hearing will take place on November 6 and 7 in the Southern District of New York, in a case that tests the fine line between developing privacy tools and promoting anonymity for illicit purposes.
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