Rodriguez and Hill plead to unauthorized money transmission, avoiding money laundering charges: facing up to five years in prison.
The developers of Samourai Wallet, Keonne Rodriguez and William Lonergan Hill, have formally pleaded guilty at the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York. The two programmers accepted charges of unlicensed money transmission as part of a plea agreement that schedules their sentencing hearings for November 6 and 7, 2025.
Details of the plea agreement
The agreement reached between Samourai Wallet’s defense team and the federal prosecution includes the dismissal of money laundering charges initially filed against Rodriguez and Hill.
According to The Rage, the financial penalties set in the agreement require Rodriguez to pay a fine of $250,000, while Hill must pay $400,000 to federal authorities.
In addition to individual fines, the agreement requires the two founders to contribute approximately $6.3 million as part of a total amount of $237 million they have agreed to forfeit to the court. Rodriguez and Hill must provide this sum by the sentencing date or, at the latest, by November 30, 2025.
The two developers also agreed to a clause preventing them from appealing any prison sentences of up to five years.
During the hearing, both acknowledged that while managing Samourai Wallet, they were aware that some of the bitcoins passing through the service were derived from criminal activity. Reportedly, no mention was made of FinCEN during the hearing, which had previously been central to the dispute over the unauthorized money transmission charge.
The Samourai Wallet case could set a precedent related to the parallel criminal case against Tornado Cash. Federal authorities recently announced they do not intend to prosecute developer Roman Storm for unauthorized money transmission offenses.
