Keonne Rodriguez and William Lonergan Hill, the co-founders of privacy-focused Samourai Wallet, have finally given and plead guilty to their charges after a long grueling trial.
The pair submitted their filings to the New York federal court on Tuesday to what prosecutors are alleged to be an unlicensed money-transmitting business that was leveraged on by criminals to mask unlawful transactions.
When the pair first appeared on court in April 2024, they have denied any forms of wrongdoings.
The change in plea marks a dramatic turn in one of the highest-profile legal battles over cryptocurrency privacy tools in the U.S.
Rodriguez, Samourai’s CEO, and Hill, the chief technology officer, were charged with conspiracy to commit money laundering, which carried a maximium prison sentence of 20 years.
Additionally, the pair were also charged with operating an unlicensed money-transmitting business, which adds an additional five years to the sentencing, bringing the maximum punishment to 25 years behind bars.
Judge Denise Cote has scheduled hearings to discuss the updated pleas. Details on whether the guilty pleas will alter sentencing outcomes have not been disclosed. The trial was previously set for November 3.
Throughout the year, the co-founders vigorously contested the charges. In April, they sought to dismiss the case by stating a document from Deputy General Todd Blanche that said the DOJ won't prosecute crypto mixer operators for "unwitting violations of regulations."
This seemingly suggests that that pair was suggesting that they had no idea that their protocol was being used to mix illegal funds, but prosecutors weren't buying it.
Their lawyers later argued that the pair was also mislead by prosecutors who tricked them to believe that they didn't require a money transmitter license six months before they were eventually charged.
This attempt to to sway the prosecutor's case was also ineffective.
Samourai Wallet, like other crypto mixers, operated by blending multiple users’ transactions to obscure origins—an approach now drawing sharp scrutiny from U.S. law enforcement.
The guilty pleas land as the crypto industry closely watches the ongoing trial of Roman Storm, co-creator of fellow mixing protocol Tornado Cash.
Privacy advocates warn that convictions in these cases could set legal precedents criminalizing open-source privacy technology and significantly curtailing digital rights in decentralized finance.
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