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The founders of the Samourai Whirlpool cryptocurrency mixer and the Samourai Wallet app have received prison sentences. US authorities believe the service helped criminals launder over $237 million in cryptocurrency.
Samourai founders Keonne Rodriguez and William Lonergan Hill were arrested on April 24, 2024. They were charged with operating an unlicensed money transmitter and money laundering.
The indictment alleged that between 2015 and February 2024, Rodriguez and Hill used Samourai's Whirlpool crypto mixer to process over $2 billion in illegal transactions, which were then used by criminals to launder over $100 million.
In August 2025, Rodriguez and Hill pleaded guilty and agreed to forfeit $237,832,360—the total amount of criminal proceeds laundered through Samourai.
Since 2015, Rodriguez and Hill had been developing Samourai as a mobile app for concealing illicit cryptocurrency transactions. The service had two main functions:
Before the founders' arrest, the Samourai Wallet mobile app had been downloaded more than 100,000 times. Following the arrest of Rodriguez and Hill, Icelandic police seized the service's servers and domains, and Google removed the app from the Play Store.
As the US Department of Justice announced last week, in November, Samourai CEO Kionne Rodriguez was sentenced to five years in prison, and the company's CTO, William Lonergan Hill, received a four-year prison sentence. In addition, after their release, both will be on supervised release for an additional three years and will be required to pay fines totaling $250,000.
Samourai founders Keonne Rodriguez and William Lonergan Hill were arrested on April 24, 2024. They were charged with operating an unlicensed money transmitter and money laundering.
The indictment alleged that between 2015 and February 2024, Rodriguez and Hill used Samourai's Whirlpool crypto mixer to process over $2 billion in illegal transactions, which were then used by criminals to launder over $100 million.
In August 2025, Rodriguez and Hill pleaded guilty and agreed to forfeit $237,832,360—the total amount of criminal proceeds laundered through Samourai.
Since 2015, Rodriguez and Hill had been developing Samourai as a mobile app for concealing illicit cryptocurrency transactions. The service had two main functions:
- Whirlpool mixed Bitcoin transactions between groups of users, obscuring the source of the transactions in the blockchain and preventing law enforcement from tracking the funds.
- Ricochet added unnecessary intermediate transactions ("hops"), making it difficult to establish links between transfers and criminal activity.
Before the founders' arrest, the Samourai Wallet mobile app had been downloaded more than 100,000 times. Following the arrest of Rodriguez and Hill, Icelandic police seized the service's servers and domains, and Google removed the app from the Play Store.
As the US Department of Justice announced last week, in November, Samourai CEO Kionne Rodriguez was sentenced to five years in prison, and the company's CTO, William Lonergan Hill, received a four-year prison sentence. In addition, after their release, both will be on supervised release for an additional three years and will be required to pay fines totaling $250,000.