Background: Samourai Wallet Co-Founder Bill Hill Sentenced to Four Years
On November 19, 2026, William 'Bill' Hill, 67, co-founder of the Bitcoin mixing service Samourai Wallet, was sentenced to four years in prison for operating an unlicensed money transmitting business. Prosecutors said the platform processed more than $237 million in criminal proceeds. Hill pleaded guilty in July in the Southern District of New York, admitting that Samourai Wallet was used to conceal proceeds from drug trafficking, darknet markets, cyber intrusions, fraud, sanctioned jurisdictions, murder-for-hire schemes, and a child pornography website. His co-founder and CEO Keonne Rodriguez was sentenced to five years in prison earlier this month for the same scheme.
Hill and Rodriguez were arrested in April 2024 and charged with conspiracy to commit money laundering and operating an unlicensed money transmitting business. The Justice Department framed the case as a landmark action against crypto mixing services.
Mixing Service Details: Whirlpool and Ricochet
Samourai Wallet offered two main services: Whirlpool and Ricochet. Whirlpool coordinated Bitcoin transactions among users to mix coins, making the source of funds difficult to trace. Ricochet added multiple additional 'hop' transactions to further obfuscate the trail. According to prosecutors, from 2017 to 2019, over 80,000 Bitcoin (worth more than $2 billion at the time) flowed through these services, generating more than $6 million in fees.
The services were not merely privacy tools for ordinary users—they were specifically designed and marketed to hide the origins of illicit funds. Internal communications revealed that the team was fully aware of the criminal usage and continued to refine the tools to meet the needs of underground customers.
Active Encouragement of Criminal Use and Internal Awareness
Prosecutors presented evidence that Rodriguez and Hill actively encouraged criminal use of Samourai Wallet. Rodriguez described the service as 'money laundering for Bitcoin' in internal documents, and Hill promoted Whirlpool on a darknet forum, claiming it could make illicit funds 'untraceable.' Following a high-profile social media hack in 2020, the pair publicly urged hackers to use Samourai Wallet to launder stolen cryptocurrency.
These actions went beyond passive acceptance. The lead prosecutor stated that the defendants 'knowingly aided, abetted, and solicited' criminals to use the platform. The case is seen as a watershed moment for the regulation of Bitcoin mixing services.
Sentencing Considerations and Industry Impact
Hill's sentence was reduced due to his age (67) and a recent autism diagnosis. The judge allowed him to serve three years of supervised release in Lisbon, Portugal, and imposed a $250,000 fine. At sentencing, Hill expressed remorse, stating, 'I am deeply remorseful and ashamed of what I did.'
This case is part of a broader crackdown on privacy-focused crypto tools. Similar prosecutions have targeted developers of Tornado Cash and other mixing platforms. The U.S. Department of Justice has signaled that it will continue to pursue such cases to preserve the integrity of the financial system, creating significant legal risk for anyone building or operating services that obscure cryptocurrency transactions.
CEO Keonne Rodriguez Also Sentenced to Five Years
Earlier this month, U.S. District Judge Denise Cote in Manhattan sentenced Samourai Wallet CEO Keonne Rodriguez to five years in prison. The hour-long hearing underscored the government's stance that Rodriguez and Hill had undermined trust in digital assets. Both men were arrested in April 2024 and faced charges of conspiracy to commit money laundering and operating an unlicensed money transmitting business. The stiff sentences send a clear warning to the crypto industry: privacy tools that facilitate crime will be met with severe penalties.