Samourai Wallet CTO William Hill Sentenced to 4 Years for Processing $237M in Criminal Proceeds

William Lonergan Hill, chief technology officer and co-founder of Samourai Wallet, received a four-year federal prison sentence on November 19 for operating an unlicensed money-transmitting business. The platform's Whirlpool and Ricochet services processed over 80,000 BTC valued above $2 billion, including more than $237 million linked to drug trafficking, darknet markets, and fraud schemes, according to the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Southern District of New York. Co-founder Keonne Rodriguez received a five-year sentence on November 6, and both defendants forfeited more than $6.3 million in fees.