Samourai Wallet's Keonne Rodriguez sentenced to maximum five-year term over crypto mixing service
Quick Take Prosecutors said that Rodriguez and co-founder William Lonergan Hill designed Samourai Wallet to offer two features, including a crypto mixing service called “Whirlpool” to help people engage in criminal conduct. In July, both founders changed their pleas to guilty after initially contesting the charges.
Samourai Wallet co-founder Keonne Rodriguez was sentenced to five years in prison, the maximum time frame prosecutors had called for after they say Rodriguez and his co-founder operated a crypto mixing service that helps launder millions of dollars in criminal proceeds.
Rodriguez was sentenced on Thursday in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York and was ordered to pay a $250,000 fine, according to reporting from Inner City Press.
Prosecutors had said that Rodriguez, who served as chief executive officer, and co-founder William Lonergan Hill, who served as chief technology officer, designed Samourai to offer two features, including a crypto mixing service called "Whirlpool" to help people engage in criminal conduct.
The pair also encouraged users to launder criminal proceeds through the mixer on X, prosecutors previously alleged.
The pair pleaded guilty in July after initially denying the charges last year. During the hearing on Thursday, Rodriguez told the court that he was sorry and said he would not break the law again.
Rodriguez's lawyer drew a distinction between Rodriguez and former FTX CEO Sam Bankman-Fried, saying that he lives in a $250,000 home in Pennsylvania and is a "warm family man," according to reporting from Inner City Press.
Bankman-Fried shared a penthouse in the Bahamas with other FTX executives. He was found guilty in November 2023 on all seven criminal counts of defrauding lenders, customers and investors, and was later sentenced to 25 years in prison last year.
Crypto mixing has been at the forefront of cases involving crypto.
In August, Tornado Cash developer Roman Storm was found guilty on a money transmitting charge, but the jury was unable to reach a verdict on money laundering and sanctions charges.
Since then, crypto advocacy groups have raised money to donate to legal funds for Storm and Tornado Cash co-founder Alexey Pertsev.
Hill's sentencing is scheduled for Nov. 19.
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