Crypto CTO Jailed for Bitcoin ‘Mystery’ 🎩💸

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Key Highlights

  • Prosecutors, with all the gravitas of a priest anointing a sinner, declared that Samourai’s Whirlpool and Ricochet tools were crafted not to protect privacy, but to shroud Bitcoin trails in a fog so thick, even the most seasoned detective would need a compass, a map, and a prayer.
  • Hill and Rodriguez, in a masterstroke of irony, promoted their mixer for illicit use, earning $6M in fees before pleading guilty-like a thief who steals a loaf of bread and then begs for mercy, claiming it was only for the “greater good.”
  • Internal chats revealed the founders’ knowledge of criminal activity, with Rodriguez, ever the poet of crime, calling mixing “money laundering for bitcoin,” a phrase so delightfully euphemistic, it could double as a dinner party conversation starter.

William Lonergan Hill, the Chief Technology Officer and Co-Founder of the cryptocurrency mixing service Samourai Wallet, found himself sentenced to four years in federal prison for aiding criminals in hiding over $237 million in illegal funds. One might say the scales of justice, though slow, do eventually tip-albeit with the grace of a drunken ballet dancer.

A federal judge in New York, with the solemnity of a funeral director, delivered the sentence, noting that Hill’s actions rendered victims of hacks, fraud schemes, and other crimes as helpless as a child in a storm-unable to recover their stolen money, which now resides in the vaults of the law, where it belongs, perhaps, but not without a side of existential dread.

Hill, in a display of humility, pleaded guilty earlier this year to conspiring to operate an unlicensed money-transmitting business. Prosecutors, with the fervor of a zealot, claimed Samourai Wallet was built to obscure Bitcoin (BTC) movement, a feat so clever, it might have made a magician blush.

The four-year sentence, a slap on the wrist for a crime that could have warranted a lifetime of regret, came after Keonne Rodriguez, CEO and Co-Founder of Samourai Wallet, was sentenced to five years in federal prison on November 6. In addition to their prison time, both men face three years of supervised release and pay $250,000 each in fines. They also forfeited more than $6.3 million, the fees Samourai earned, toward a larger forfeiture order tied to the criminal proceeds moved through the platform. One wonders if the $6.3 million was worth the risk-or if it was simply a drop in the ocean of their hubris.

Tools Designed to Hide Bitcoin Trails

In the sentence, prosecutors, with the precision of a surgeon, said Samourai Wallet was engineered to obscure Bitcoin transfers and evade financial safeguards, making it difficult for law enforcement and exchanges to trace suspicious transactions. It was, in essence, a game of hide-and-seek with the entire world watching, and the players playing with a deck of cards marked “I’m innocent.”

Two key features drove this effort. “Whirlpool,” a mixing service launched in 2019, shuffled Bitcoin between groups of users so the original source of the coins disappeared within the blockchain. It was a digital sleight of hand, as if the coins had been transmuted into smoke and mirrors.

Another tool, “Ricochet,” added extra, unnecessary hops to a transaction to break the link between a sender and receiver. Together, these features processed more than 80,000 BTC, worth over $2 billion at the time, and generated more than $6 million in fees. One might say the founders were not merely mixing coins-they were mixing fortunes, and the consequences, as it turns out, were as heavy as lead.

Evidence of Encouraging Criminal Use

Investigators, with the tenacity of a hound on a scent, pointed to messages and online posts showing that Hill and Rodriguez actively encouraged criminal use. Hill, in a bid for popularity, advertised the service on the darknet forum Dread, telling users looking to “clean dirty BTC” that Samourai’s Whirlpool tool was the better option. It was a pitch so persuasive, one might imagine a criminal saying, “Why not? It’s just a little bit of magic!”

In 2020, Rodriguez also urged hackers behind a major social media breach to channel stolen funds into the mixer, later expressing disappointment when they chose another service. A man of many talents, Rodriguez-his heart as cold as a winter’s night, his words as sharp as a dagger.

Internal communications showed the Co-Founders fully understood how Samourai was being used. In one WhatsApp exchange, Rodriguez described mixing as “money laundering for bitcoin,” a phrase so delightfully euphemistic, it could double as a dinner party conversation starter. Samourai’s marketing materials, with the audacity of a villain in a Shakespearean play, acknowledged that part of its customer base consisted of dark-market participants moving illegal proceeds. One might call it a business model, but more likely, it was a moral free-for-all.

The investigation involved cooperation from the Internal Revenue Service (IRS), Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), Europol, Icelandic authorities, and Portuguese law enforcement, who helped secure Hill’s extradition from Portugal in 2024. It was a global effort, as if the world had finally decided that privacy, when used for crime, was a luxury no one could afford.

The case has drawn significant attention in the crypto world because it raises major questions about privacy tools. Prosecutors argue that if a service is designed to help hide criminal money, it clearly breaks the law, regardless of the technology used. One might say the lesson is clear: if you want to play with fire, don’t be surprised when the flames singe your fingers-and your reputation.

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2025-11-20 10:49