US authorities have handed down another prison term tied to crypto mixing tools, sentencing Samourai Wallet co-founder William “Bill” Hill to four years for running an unlicensed money transmitting business.
Hill, 67, pleaded guilty in July in the Southern District of New York. “I pled guilty because I am guilty. I am deeply remorseful and ashamed of what I did”, Hill said.
Prosecutors estimate Samourai processed at least US$237 million (AU$355.5 million) in illicit proceeds and argued in an August filing that the app was “designed and operated as a service for transmitting criminal proceeds”.
Prosecutors added that Hill and co-founder Keonne Rodriguez knew it was being used to launder and hide money.
The over $237 million dollars of criminal proceeds laundered through Samourai came from, among other things, drug trafficking, darknet marketplaces, cyber-intrusions, frauds, sanctioned jurisdictions, murder-for-hire schemes, and a child pornography website.
U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York. Rodriguez previously received a five-year sentence, the maximum allowed.
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Judge Denise Cote cut Hill’s term below that ceiling, citing his age and recent autism diagnosis as factors that would make imprisonment unusually hard.
Hill will also serve three years of supervised release, which he can complete from Lisbon, and pay a US$250,000 (AU$375,000) fine. The judge said she would recommend credit for time he spent in custody in Portugal before extradition.
The case fits a broader crackdown on crypto privacy tools. Similarly, Tornado Cash developer Roman Storm was convicted in August on a similar unlicensed money transmission charge, though jurors did not convict on money laundering and sanctions counts.
Another Tornado Cash developer, Alexey Pertsev, was sentenced to 64 months in prison for money laundering by Dutch judges.
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