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The Samourai Wallet Case: What Happened and Why It Still Matters
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Samourai Wallet was one of Bitcoin's most prominent privacy-focused wallets, serving more than 100,000 users and processing over $2 billion in transactions since its launch in 2015. Its co-founders, Keonne Rodriguez and William Lonergan Hill, were arrested after federal prosecutors alleged the platform processed over $237 million in criminal proceeds. Both ultimately pleaded guilty in 2025 to conspiracy to operate an unlicensed money-transmitting business. Rodriguez received a 60-month sentence while Hill was sentenced to four years. As part of the resolution, the two forfeited approximately $6.37 million in fees earned through the platform. The Samourai mobile application was also removed from the Google Play Store in the United States following a seizure warrant served by authorities.
What makes the case particularly significant beyond its immediate facts is the legal precedent it touches. Samourai was a non-custodial wallet — meaning it never held users' funds directly — and its founders argued they were simply developers of open-source privacy software, not operators of a money-transmitting service in the traditional sense. The prosecution disagreed, and the guilty pleas have left the broader developer community grappling with a deeply uncomfortable question: can the creators of privacy tools be held criminally liable for how their users choose to use them? That debate has not been resolved, and it remains one of the most consequential unresolved legal questions in the Bitcoin and broader crypto space. Notably, the original Samourai code lives on through the Ashigaru fork, which continues to circulate independently of its imprisoned founders.
