Keonne Rodriguez has been sentenced to five years in prison and fined $250,000 after accepting a plea agreement and pleading guilty to conspiracy to operate an unlicensed money transmitting business in connection with his work on Samourai Wallet, with sentencing finalized on November 6, 2025, in the Southern District of New York. This story was covered in depth by The Rage. The U.S. government argued that Rodriguez and co-developer William Hill intentionally designed privacy features like Whirlpool and Ricochet to facilitate money laundering, alleging the wallet was used to launder over $237 million from criminal activities including drug trafficking and fraud. While prosecutors pushed for the maximum sentence, the defense emphasized that the developers believed their work was legal, citing guidance from counsel and their focus on financial privacy as digital cash. Rodriguez is scheduled to surrender to federal custody on December 19, 2025. Despite not resisting arrest, complying with all conditions of his $1 million dollar bail package including 18 months under house arrest and electronic monitoring, forfeiting $6.3 million dollars to the court, and accepting the plea agreement Judge Cote still chose to punish the software developer with the maximum penalty of 5 years in prison and an additional $250,000 fine.  

Other News sources include: Yahoo Finance, Coin Desk, and The Cyber Express