{"id":14243,"date":"2025-11-07T11:20:33","date_gmt":"2025-11-07T18:20:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/jasonsblog.ddns.net\/?p=14243"},"modified":"2025-11-07T11:20:33","modified_gmt":"2025-11-07T18:20:33","slug":"keonne-rodriguez-sentenced-to-5-years-in-prison-250000-fine","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/jasonsblog.ddns.net\/index.php\/2025\/11\/07\/keonne-rodriguez-sentenced-to-5-years-in-prison-250000-fine\/","title":{"rendered":"Keonne Rodriguez Sentenced to 5 Years in Prison, $250,000 Fine"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Taking a fee and their online behavior indicating that they encouraged money launderers to use the service took them over the line, as well as taking the plea deal. But the real story is this was an attack on services and methods of giving yourself financial privacy with cryptocurrencies. Technically, they never took custody of any funds, so legal liability is debatable. Consequently, you have practically no privacy with the TradFi system, with your bank actively reporting your transactions to the government per regulation (often over reporting). And worldwide there is a movement against self-custody of cryptocurrency assets (they want custodial where they can steal it), reporting via on-ramps and off-ramps with amounts and addresses, even suggesting using new addresses for each transaction as an attempt to conceal illegal activity… We’ve learned from a related trial from their expert tracking entity, that only a small percentage of coinjoin type transactions are by criminals with most participating strictly for privacy. And best to remember, the federal government can pretty easily railroad you in court with the federal judge denying you the ability to put on a legitimate defense, e.g. the Leonard Peltier and Ross Ulbricht.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

https:\/\/www.therage.co\/keonne-rodriguez-samourai-sentenced\/<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n

<\/div><\/div><\/div>\n\n\n
Sentenced after pleading guilty in July, the Samourai Wallet developer will surrender to law enforcement custody on December 19th.<\/h5>\n\n\n\n
\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Keonne Rodriguez, co-developer of the Bitcoin privacy wallet Samourai Wallet, has been sentenced to 5 years in prison and a fine of $250,000 by a New York judge, after Rodriguez plead guilty<\/a> to conspiracy to operate an unlicensed money transmitting business. Judge Denise Cote\u2019s five-year ruling matched government prosecutors\u2019 request for the maximum possible sentence<\/a>. Rodriguez\u2019 defense team had requested a sentence of one year and one day, while a pre-sentencing recommendation from probation authorities recommended 42 months.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Samourai Wallet was a non-custodial privacy wallet that allowed users to keep their public Bitcoin balances private by employing CoinJoins, a form of collaborative transaction that break the link between inputs and outputs, and a Samourai-specific feature called Ricochet, that added additional hops to bitcoin transactions, adding layers of privacy to the otherwise public movement of funds.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In July, Rodriguez and his cofounder William Hill plead guilty under \u00a71960(b)(1)(C), money transmitter licensing law that criminalizes<\/a> the known transmission of illicit proceeds \u2013 The same subsection that prosecutors used to convict<\/a> Tornado Cash cocreator Roman Storm in August.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Rodriguez’ sentencing is the second high-profile prosecution under the clause after the Trump administration claimed in the April 2025 \u201cBlanche Memo\u201d<\/a> that it would no longer prosecute developers for writing code. CoinCenter Executive Director Peter Van Valkenburgh has argued that stripping subsection C from the broader statutory context is a \u201cbizarre\u201d <\/a>legalend-run<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Earlier this year, Assistant Attorney General Matthew Galeotti stated that<\/a>, “where the evidence shows that software is truly decentralized and solely automates peer-to-peer transactions, and where a third-party does not have custody and control over user assets, new 1960(b)(1)(C) charges against the third-party will not be approved” \u2013 which many hoped to finally end the Biden-era’s regulation by prosecution streak.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Privacy is for Criminals<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Judge Cote appeared extremely skeptical of any claim to Samourai Wallet\u2019s usefulness for non-criminal ends or general privacy, offering a lengthy critical response to a clemency letter submitted to the court by Rodriguez. While describing the letter as \u201cunusually detailed and lengthy,\u201d Cote said she had a \u201ctroubling reaction\u201d to Rodriguez\u2019 letter, which she felt did not convey contrition.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe defendant engaged \u2026 in very serious anti-social behavior \u2026 I don\u2019t see the letter [acknowledging] this,\u201d Cote said from the bench. \u201c[It] misunderstands many things. [Rodriguez] identifies his motive as protecting financial privacy. That\u2019s fine, that\u2019s good \u2026 but I don\u2019t think that\u2019s what’s really at stake here.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe defendant doesn\u2019t identify\u201d the specific problem Samourai sought to solve, Cote said. \u201cThere is no acknowledgement in that letter of the criminal world for whom digital currency is a gift \u2026 There seems to be no recognition of the human suffering that was facilitated by the defendant.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Rodriguez using Cash, “Suspicious Behavior”<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Arguments from the prosecution and defense followed. Government prosecutors reiterated claims and evidence in the indictment, including that Rodriguez and Samourai actively courted criminal users by offering discounts to hackers; soliciting Russian and Iranian sanctions violators; and was \u201cdisappointed\u201d when he saw criminal proceeds being processed through competing services.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Prosecutors also described what they characterized as suspicious behavior by Rodriguez prior to his indictment, including using cash to conceal his movements. Echoing Judge Cotes\u2019 reading of Rodriguez\u2019 clemency letter, prosecutors concluded that \u201cthe defendant seems to think that 3rd party money laundering simply isn\u2019t a serious crime.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Rodriguez\u2019 defense attempted to refute those claims, citing Samourai\u2019s non-criminal application in combating \u201cthe ability to track people\u2019s transactions on the blockchain,\u201d and citing threats to non-criminal users including recent cases of kidnapping and blackmail. Rodriguez\u2019 defense also claimed ambiguities in the law itself. Rodriguez\u2019 \u201cview was, if you don\u2019t need a [FinCen] license, all bets are off \u2026 there is no Bank Secrecy Act\u201d compliance requirement for Samourai Wallet, Rodriguez believed – even if incorrectly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Rodriguez Speaks Out<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Finally, Rodriguez spoke in his own defense. \u201cThe letter I wrote to you was something I personally wanted to write, because for the last 18 months I haven\u2019t been able to speak for myself .. You took the wrong meaning from it. I am truly remorseful.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Judge Cote did not seem swayed, stating that Rodriguez still seemed to be \u201cfunctioning with moral blinders on\u201d and that \u201cindividual deterrence\u201d remained a consideration in her ultimate sentence.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In addition to his 60 month sentence and $250,000 punitive fine, Rodriguez will be on supervised release for three years following his prison stint. 20% of his gross income will be garnished toward the fine after his release, as will $25 a month or up to 50% of any income earned in Federal prison work programs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Rodriguez had additionally been charged with conspiracy to commit money laundering, a charge that was dropped in return for Rodriguez’ guilty plea. The Government’s sentencing memorandum yet relied heavily on money laundering allegations, as well as allegations of sanctions evasion, which it mentioned over thirteen times \u2013 despite sanctions evasion never being brought as a charge.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Rodriguez does have avenues to appeal his sentence, Judge Cote stated. Defense requested he be placed in a minimum security prison near his Pennsylvania home. Both prosecution and defense agreed Rodriguez could be released until his surrender for prison on or before December 19th.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As of press time, Rodriguez\u2019 co-developer William Hill is scheduled to be sentenced tomorrow at 11am ET at the Southern District of New York.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Taking a fee and their online behavior indicating that they encouraged money launderers to use the service took them over the line, as well as taking the plea deal. But the real story is this was an attack on services and methods of giving yourself financial privacy with cryptocurrencies. Technically, they never took custody of […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6,7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-14243","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-tech","category-world"],"blocksy_meta":[],"featured_image_src":null,"author_info":{"display_name":"Jason","author_link":"https:\/\/jasonsblog.ddns.net\/index.php\/author\/jturning\/"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/jasonsblog.ddns.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14243","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/jasonsblog.ddns.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/jasonsblog.ddns.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jasonsblog.ddns.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jasonsblog.ddns.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=14243"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/jasonsblog.ddns.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14243\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":14245,"href":"https:\/\/jasonsblog.ddns.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14243\/revisions\/14245"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/jasonsblog.ddns.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=14243"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jasonsblog.ddns.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=14243"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jasonsblog.ddns.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=14243"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}