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Samourai Wallet Devs Plead Guilty to Conspiring to Run Unlicensed Money Transmitter
The pair’s plea change comes amid Tornado Cash developer Roman Storm’s ongoing criminal trial on similar charges.
Updated Jul 31, 2025, 1:17 p.m. Published Jul 30, 2025, 8:54 p.m.
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What to know:
- The pair behind Samourai Wallet cut a deal to plead guilty to lesser charges on Wednesday, drastically reducing their potential sentencing when they face that next step in November.
- The plea deal came just as a jury in the same court started work assessing its verdict in the Tornado Cash case, which involved similar government accusations against Roman Storm.
- Samourai developers Keonne Rodriguez and William “Bill” Lonergan Hill admitted operating an unlicensed money transmitting business and agreed to forfeit almost $238 million.
The developers of bitcoin mixing service Samourai Wallet pleaded guilty to one count each of conspiracy to operate an unlicensed money transmitting business on Wednesday, taking a plea deal that drastically cut their potential prison time for their role in creating a privacy tool prosecutors say was used to launder more than $100 million in dirty money.
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In back-to-back hearings in front of U.S. District Judge Denise Cote of the Southern District of New York (SDNY) on Wednesday, both Keonne Rodriguez and William “Bill” Lonergan Hill changed their pleas. The pair were initially charged with one count each of conspiracy to commit money laundering and conspiracy to operate an unlicensed money transmitting business, to which they'd both pleaded not guilty.
Their plea deal with the government struck the more serious money-laundering charge, which carries a maximum sentence of 20 years in prison, in exchange for pleading guilty to the lesser, money-transmitting charge, which carries a maximum sentence of five years in prison. In addition, both Rodriguez and Hill agreed to forfeit just under $238 million combined, with $6.3 million to be paid before their sentencing date in November.
Rodriguez and Hill’s change of plea comes as Tornado Cash developer Roman Storm — who faces similar charges for creating another privacy-focused crypto mixing service — stands trial in the same court. Storm’s trial concluded on Wednesday, mere hours after the Samourai Wallet developers pleaded guilty, and the jury is currently deliberating.
The government’s offer of a plea deal to the Samourai Wallet developers came as Storm’s trial was still ongoing, a source familiar with the matter told CoinDesk.
Until the pair are sentenced later this year, Cote required them to remain on house arrest, and ordered Hill — a resident of Portugal — to return to New York to serve the remainder of his house arrest closer to court, Bitcoin Magazine reported.
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