The digital curtain came crashing down on the founders of the controversial cryptocurrency mixer Samourai Wallet, as they faced the music in court with prison sentences for their role in facilitating illegal transactions. In a statement obtained by the U.S. Attorney's Office, Southern District of New York, Keonne Rodriguez the CEO, and William Lonergan Hill, the CTO, were convicted of running a service that laundered over $237 million in proceeds from activities including drug trafficking and cybercrime.
Justice has been served with Rodriguez and Hill receiving sentences of five and four years respectively. Acting under authority vested by 28 U.S.C. § 515, Attorney for the United States Nicolas Roos highlighted the severity of their crimes and the consequences that follow, stating, "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." The duo also faces three years of supervised release and was ordered to pay a fine of $250,000 each. Following their conviction, a total of $6,367,139.69 was paid in forfeiture by the defendants, which is said to represent the fees earned by Samourai, as noted by the U.S. Attorney's Office.
The indictment revealed that Samourai, primarily through its "Whirlpool" and "Ricochet" services, was specifically designed to cloak illicit transactions. From 2017 and 2019 onwards, more than 80,000 Bitcoin, which was valued at over $2 billion back then, moved through these services. Investigations found that the Samourai platform collected fees estimated at more than $6 million during its operation. The ingeniously crafted software provided by Samourai made tracking by law enforcement agencies a formidable challenge, making the recovery of stolen funds by victims nearly impossible.
Not only did Rodriguez and Hill develop the application, but they also actively encouraged and marketed it within criminal circles. On one occasion, Hill promoted Samourai as a transmittal service for criminal proceeds on Dread, a darknet forum. Similarly, Rodriguez once suggested hackers involved in a social media platform hack "feed" the proceeds into Samourai's Whirlpool. Moreover, in a candid acknowledgement of Samourai's purpose, Rodriguez described the mixing process as "money laundering for bitcoin", acknowledging their clientele would include entities moving proceeds from illicit activity, as per the U.S. Attorney's Office.
The praise for the investigative work goes to the collaboration between various agencies, including the Internal Revenue Service-Criminal Investigation and the FBI. Their efforts were complemented by the Office of International Affairs which played a substantial role in securing the extradition of Hill from Portugal in July 2024. This case was managed by the Office’s Complex Frauds and Cybercrime Unit along with the Illicit Finance and Money Laundering Unit, with Assistant U.S. Attorneys Andrew K. Chan, David R. Felton, and Cecilia Vogel taking the helm of the prosecution efforts.
