On November 19, William \u201cBill\u201d Hill, 67, co-founder of Bitcoin mixing service Samourai Wallet, was sentenced to four years in prison for operating an unlicensed money transmitting business that processed over $237 million in criminal proceeds, according to journalist Frank Corva<\/a>.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n Hill pleaded<\/a> guilty in July in the Southern District of New York, admitting<\/a> that the platform he co-founded was used to conceal illicit funds from activities including drug trafficking, darknet marketplaces, cyber intrusions, fraud, sanctioned jurisdictions, murder-for-hire schemes, and a child pornography website.\u00a0<\/p>\n His co-founder, Keonne Rodriguez, received a five-year sentence.<\/p>\n Prosecutors said Hill and Rodriguez actively promoted Samourai Wallet to criminal users on darknet forums and internally recognized that its mixing process functioned as \u201cmoney laundering for Bitcoin.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n Authorities said the pair ran Samourai Wallet\u2019s Whirlpool and Ricochet services to obscure the origins of criminal proceeds from drug trafficking, darknet marketplaces, fraud schemes, cybercrime, and even murder-for-hire operations.\u00a0<\/p>\n Whirlpool coordinated Bitcoin exchanges between users, while Ricochet added multiple transaction \u201chops\u201d to make tracing more difficult. From 2017 to 2019, over 80,000 Bitcoin \u2014 worth more than $2 billion at the time \u2014 flowed through the services, generating over $6 million in fees, prosecutors said<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n Court records indicate Rodriguez and Hill actively encouraged criminal use through Samourai Wallet, with Rodriguez describing the services as \u201cmoney laundering for bitcoin\u201d and Hill promoting Whirlpool on a darknet forum as making illicit funds \u201cuntraceable.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n They also publicly urged hackers to launder stolen funds following a 2020 social media hack, prosecutors contended.<\/p>\n Hill\u2019s sentence was reduced due to his age and recent autism diagnosis, with the judge allowing him to serve three years of supervised release from Lisbon, and imposing a $250,000 fine.<\/p>\n The case reflects a growing crackdown on privacy-focused crypto tools, following similar prosecutions of developers of platforms like Tornado Cash.\u00a0<\/p>\n Hill expressed remorse at sentencing, stating, \u201cI am deeply remorseful and ashamed of what I did,\u201d highlighting the increasing scrutiny on services designed to obscure digital asset transactions.<\/p>\n As mentioned earlier, <\/strong>Keonne Rodriguez, CEO of Samourai Wallet, was sentenced<\/a> to five years in prison earlier this month for the same scheme.<\/p>\n Rodriguez\u2019s sentencing, handed down by U.S. District Judge Denise Cote in Manhattan, followed an hour-long hearing.\u00a0<\/p>\n Rodriguez and Hill were arrested in April 2024 and charged<\/a> with conspiracy to commit money laundering and operating an unlicensed money transmitting business.\u00a0<\/p>\n The Department of Justice framed the case as part of a wider crackdown on crypto mixing services, emphasizing the defendants\u2019 active promotion of illicit fund laundering, which undermined trust in digital assets.<\/p>\nSamourai Wallet\u2019s CEO sentencing<\/h2>\n
![\"Samourai](\"https:\/\/cdn-ileamcn.nitrocdn.com\/BngESKHdyFjXuZbvyAhEMmtQtwLKSKkU\/assets\/images\/optimized\/rev-c3df002\/bitcoinmagazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/Screenshot-2025-11-21-at-1.18.01-PM-1024x572.png\" "\\"Samourai")