Compass Investments

U.S. federal prosecutors are pushing for sixty months in prison for Keonn Rodriguez and William Lonergan Hill, the founders of Samourai Wallet, for running an unlicensed money transfer system. According to the indictment, Rodriguez and Lonergan operated a crypto service that facilitated the laundering of at least $237 million in illegal proceeds over nearly a decade.

Rodriguez will be sentenced on November 6 and Hill on November 7.

The U.S. prosecution is seeking five-year sentences for both creators of Samourai Wallet, saying they developed and promoted a cryptocurrency platform that helped legalize hundreds of millions of dollars in criminal proceeds.

On Friday, prosecutors submitted a sentencing memorandum requesting 60 months of incarceration for Keonn Rodriguez and William Lonergan Hill. For nearly a decade, Rodriguez and Hill owned and operated a major money laundering scheme known as the Samourai Purse, which laundered millions in illicit activity for the benefit of their clients,

, the document noted.

According to the materials, from 2015 to April 2024 through Samourai passed at least $237 million in illicit funds seized from drug trafficking, operations on darknet sites, cyberattacks, fraud, orders to eliminate people and one resource with illegal materials for minors. During this time, Rodriguez served as co-founder and CEO of Samourai, while Hill served as co-founder and CTO. Prosecutors added that Hill admitted in his letter before the verdict that he invited

digital hackers and other offenders

to launder their criminal proceeds through Samourai.

In June 2025, a grand jury indicted Rodriguez and Hill on additional charges of conspiracy to launder money and conspiracy to engage in unlicensed financial transaction business. According to the case file, Rodriguez and Hill pleaded guilty to the latter count in separate plea agreements on July 30.

Prosecutors calculated an offense level of 35 for each defendant, which corresponds to a sentencing range of 168 to 210 months under federal guidelines. However, as stated in the statement, the applicable term is 60 months in prison, as that is the maximum penalty provided by law for violating Section 371.

Probation recommended a sentence of 42 months for each defendant. Rodriguez requested a sentence of one year and one day, while Hill requested a term consistent with time already served (i.e., no additional imprisonment), the document said. Samourai’s founders were arrested on April 24, 2024.

The request for a five-year sentence underscores the increased efforts of U.S. prosecutors to combat cryptocurrencies and anonymity services.

In August, a Manhattan jury found Roman Storm, co-founder of Tornado Cash, guilty of one count of unlicensed money brokering, but did not reach a verdict on Storm’s charges of money laundering and sanctions violations.

The decision resonated in the crypto community, and supporters, including the Ethereum Foundation and the Solana Policy Institute, have committed funds to Storm’s legal defense.