U.S. Prosecutors Demand 5-Year Prison Sentence for Samourai Wallet Founders

• Authorities revealed that Samourai Wallet founders laundered over $237 million through their privacy-focused crypto platform.
• Both founders, Keonne Rodriguez and William Lonergan Hill, pleaded guilty to operating unlicensed money transmission business charges and would now face up to five years in prison.

The U.S. prosecutors are seeking a five-year prison term for the two founders of the Samourai Wallet. The two founders were accused of creating and promoting a cryptocurrency mixing service that was used to launder hundreds and possibly millions of dollars from investors. According to the court sentencing memorandum submitted on Friday, the prosecutors are asking the court to give each founder of Samouria wallets 60 months in prison. 

How the Samourai Wallet Founders Operated Their Scheme

The District Court in S.D. New York shared a prosecuting report concerning the two Samourai wallet founders. According to what was shared, the two culprits managed to run their operations for. They claim that for nearly ten years, the two men ran a large-scale money laundering operation and hid it under the guise of a privacy-focused crypto wallet that most know as “Samourai Wallet.”

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The court also shared that Samouria service was used to launder at least $237 million in illegal funds from different kinds of illegal crimes such as drug trafficking, darknet market sales, cyberattacks, fraud schemes, and murder-for-hire plots, and they even made use of a site that contained illegal materials that belonged to minors.

From 2015 till April 2024, Keonne Rodriguez, one of the founders, acted as the company’s CEO while William Lonergan Hill served as the CTO. Prosecutors also mentioned that Hill admitted in his own sentencing letter that he purposefully encouraged hackers and other criminals to make use of Samouria platform to move and hide any illicit profits.

The Trial and Plea of Samouria Wallet Founders 

Earlier in June, a grand jury issued a new indictment against the two Samouria wallet founders, charging them with conspiracy to commit money laundering and conspiracy to operate an unlicensed and unregulated money transmission business.

However, by July 30, both Rodriguez and Hill pleaded guilty to the second charge under different plea agreements, and based on the federal sentencing guidelines, the prosecutors came to a decision that their offenses carried an offense level of 35, which would normally result in a prison term of 168 to 210 months. But since the maximum time stated for the offense is 60 months, the government has requested that each of them serve five years instead.

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