Samourai Wallet co-founder William Lonergan Hill sentenced to four years in crypto mixing service case

Samourai Wallet co-founder William Lonergan Hill was sentenced to four years in prison for his role in operating a crypto mixing service that prosecutors said helped criminals "wash millions in dirty money," according to a statement from the U.S. Attorney's Office. 

Hill was sentenced on Wednesday in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York about two weeks after his former colleague Keonne Rodriguez, who was sentenced to the maximum five-year penalty by the same district court. Rodriguez served as chief executive officer of Samourai, and Hill was chief technology officer. 

The pair pleaded guilty in July after initially denying the charges last year. 

"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,” said Attorney for the United States Nicolas Roos in the statement. 

Rodriguez, 37, and Hill, 67, were also each sentenced to three years of supervised release and ordered to each pay a fine of $250,000. Both have paid over $6.3 million in forfeitures, prosecutors said on Wednesday. 

In August, prosecutors said that Samourai was an app "designed and operated as a service for transmitting criminal proceeds" and that Hill and Rodriguez were aware it was being used to hide the funds. 

Crypto mixing services have come into the spotlight for prosecutors over the past few years. Tornado Cash developer Roman Storm was charged in 2023 with money laundering, conspiracy to operate an unlicensed money transmitting business, and sanctions violations. In August, a jury was unable to reach a verdict on money laundering and sanctions charges, but found Storm guilty on the money transmitting charge.

In August, Matthew J Galeotti, acting assistant attorney general of the Justice Department's Criminal Division, said that "writing code" is not a crime. In the meantime, crypto advocates have been raising money to donate to legal funds for Storm and have been urging lawmakers to protect software developers as they deliberate how the digital asset industry is regulated.