{"id":90652,"date":"2025-11-04T20:51:39","date_gmt":"2025-11-04T17:51:39","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/?p=90652"},"modified":"2025-11-04T20:55:13","modified_gmt":"2025-11-04T17:55:13","slug":"samourai-wallet-founders-accused-of-deliberate-money-laundering","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/samourai-wallet-founders-accused-of-deliberate-money-laundering\/","title":{"rendered":"Samourai Wallet Founders Accused of Deliberate Money Laundering"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Co-founders of the cryptocurrency wallet Samourai Wallet, Keonne Rodriguez and William Lonergan Hill, &#8220;repeatedly incited, encouraged, and urged criminals&#8221; to use their platform to conceal illicit funds, according to U.S. prosecutors in a <a href=\"https:\/\/storage.courtlistener.com\/recap\/gov.uscourts.nysd.615996\/gov.uscourts.nysd.615996.157.0.pdf\">sentencing memorandum<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>Authorities claim the accused intentionally created and promoted a crypto mixer within criminal circles for personal gain.<\/p>\n<p>The probation service recommended 42 months of imprisonment for each defendant, but the prosecution is seeking the maximum possible five-year term.<\/p>\n<p>The sentencing hearing is scheduled for November 6.<\/p>\n<p>The government document references a 2018 WhatsApp conversation in which Rodriguez referred to cryptocurrency mixing as &#8220;money laundering.&#8221; In 2020 and 2023, Hill allegedly promoted Samourai on darknet forums, claiming the project would &#8220;clean dirty bitcoins&#8221; and make them &#8220;untraceable.&#8221;<\/p>\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/forklog.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/img-7c0161529f6db2af-8669543818584864.webp\" alt=\"image\" class=\"wp-image-268957\"\/><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">In the X account, Samourai Wallet welcomes &#8220;new Russian oligarchs.&#8221; Source: court documents.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>Prosecutors estimate the defendants received over $6.3 million in transaction fees through the wallet. The funds were received in bitcoin, so the amount may be higher today due to the currency&#8217;s appreciation.<\/p>\n<p>In July, Samourai Wallet developers <a href=\"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/news\/samourai-wallet-founders-admit-to-money-laundering-charges\">pleaded<\/a> guilty to conspiracy to conduct unlicensed money transmission using illicit funds.<\/p>\n<p>In exchange, prosecutors dropped three other serious charges: conspiracy to launder money, conspiracy to violate sanctions, and federal licensing violations.<\/p>\n<p>In August, in a similar case, Tornado Cash mixer developer Roman Storm was <a href=\"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/news\/jury-returns-partial-guilty-verdict-for-tornado-cash-co-founder-crypto-industry-dismayed\">found<\/a> partially guilty.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Co-founders of the cryptocurrency wallet Samourai Wallet, Keonne Rodriguez and William Lonergan Hill, &#8220;repeatedly incited, encouraged, and urged criminals&#8221; to use their platform to conceal illicit funds, according to U.S. prosecutors.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":90653,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"select":"1","news_style_id":"1","cryptorium_level":"","_short_excerpt_text":"Prosecutors seek a five-year prison sentence.","creation_source":"","_metatest_mainpost_news_update":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[1162,1512],"class_list":["post-90652","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news-and-analysis","tag-court-cases","tag-samourai-wallet"],"aioseo_notices":[],"amp_enabled":true,"views":"202","promo_type":"1","layout_type":"1","short_excerpt":"Prosecutors seek a five-year prison sentence.","is_update":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/90652","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=90652"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/90652\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":90654,"href":"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/90652\/revisions\/90654"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/90653"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=90652"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=90652"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=90652"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}