Samourai Wallet Developer Sentenced to 5 Years in Prison for Unlicensed Money Transmitting

Samourai Wallet developer Keonne Rodriguez was sentenced by District Judge Denise Cote to the statutory maximum of five years in prison for his role in creating a bitcoin mixing service allegedly used to launder $237 million in illicit funds. Rodriguez and fellow developer William Lonergan Hill were initially charged with conspiracy to commit money laundering and operating an unlicensed money transmitting business. They later pleaded guilty only to the lesser unlicensed money transmitting conspiracy charge to avoid the 20-year maximum sentence for the money laundering charge. Prosecutors had urged the maximum sentence, stating the service laundered proceeds from serious crimes like drug trafficking and murder-for-hire schemes. Hill is scheduled for sentencing soon, while a third developer, Roman Storm of Tornado Cash, was found guilty only of unlicensed money transmitting in a separate trial.

(Source：CoinDesk)