Samourai Wallet developer sentenced to four years in prison
Date: 2025-11-21 Author: Oliver Abernathy Categories: BUSINESS
In July 2025, Hill and his colleague, Keonne Rodriguez, entered into a plea bargain with prosecutors, admitting only to operating an unlicensed payment business. They initially faced up to 20 years in prison for money laundering and illegal operations. The two developers were arrested back in 2024. Rodriguez received the maximum sentence of five years in prison for similar actions.
Samorai Wallet offered users privacy features, including a built-in Whirlpool mixer, which made transactions difficult to trace. According to prosecutors, more than $237 million in criminal proceeds passed through the wallet. The case documents indicate that the funds could be linked to hacker attacks, contract killings, and other crimes.
Prosecutors allege that both developers knew about the criminal use of the service. The case documents include evidence that Hill promoted Samourai on darknet forums as a way to "clean up dirty BTC," while Rodriguez encouraged hackers to use Whirlpool on social media in 2020, describing the mixing process as "laundering Bitcoin."
Hill's lawyer noted that he has been diagnosed with autism, which could affect his decision-making ability. The court, however, rejected arguments that the crime was not intentional but took Hill's age into account, reducing his sentence from 60 to 48 months.
Both developers are also required to undergo three years of supervised release and pay fines of $250,000 each. They previously confiscated more than $6.3 million, which prosecutors estimate to be commissions received from illegal transfers through Samourai Wallet.
The Samourai Wallet lawsuits have become a notable development in the cryptocurrency space, highlighting the risks for developers of services with privacy and transaction mixing features, especially if they are used for illegal purposes.
