Keonne Rodriguez, the co-founder of privacy wallet Samourai Wallet, is now serving a 60-month sentence at FPC Morgantown federal prison after pleading guilty to running an unlicensed money-transmitting business. This week, Rodriguez publicly appealed for Bitcoin donations to help cover what he and his wife owe in legal fees, which top $2 million, plus a $250,000 court-imposed fine. The case has been closely watched by privacy advocates and crypto developers worried about where the line falls between financial privacy and criminal liability.
60 Months at FPC Morgantown
Rodriguez was sentenced after admitting prosecutors' allegations that Samourai Wallet processed over $237 million in criminal proceeds. The app had handled more than $2 billion across over 100,000 users since its 2015 launch. Co-founder William Lonergan Hill also pleaded guilty and received a four-year sentence. Together, they were forced to forfeit approximately $6.37 million in earned fees. Rodriguez had been out on a $1 million bond before the sentencing, but now he's at a low-security facility in West Virginia.
The $2 Million Tab
Rodriguez and his wife are on the hook for over $2 million in legal costs on top of that $250,000 fine. That's a hefty sum for a family already deep in debt from the criminal case. On May 6, 2026, Rodriguez tweeted a Bitcoin address — bc1qtjjcvn98wh7dfd55m8kxhjcfexanttwt8gtan8 — and asked for donations. He didn't promise any repayment. The appeal went out quietly, without a major campaign behind it.
Pardon Prospects Dim
Back in late 2025, President Trump said he'd consider a pardon for Rodriguez. But Rodriguez himself now says the chances are "very low." The timing isn't great — his sentence is already being served, and the administration has shown little appetite for wading into crypto-related clemency cases. No formal petition has been publicly filed.
The Charges and the Fork
The Samourai mobile app was pulled from the Google Play Store in the US under a seizure warrant. But the original code didn't vanish. It continues to circulate through the Ashigaru fork, a community-led version that keeps the privacy features alive outside US jurisdiction. That fork has no official ties to Rodriguez or Hill, but it means the software Samourai built is still out there — a reminder that the technology itself didn't go to prison.
