Samourai Wallet's Keonne Rodriguez pleads not guilty to money laundering, transmitting charges

A Samourai Wallet co-founder pleaded not guilty on Monday to federal charges relating to his creation of a tool that makes crypto transactions difficult to trace, as U.S. authorities crack down on privacy-focused technology, CoinDesk reported.

Keonne Rodriguez, 35, faces two charges: Conspiracy to commit money laundering and conspiracy to operate an unlicensed money transmitting business. The charges carry a combined maximum prison sentence of 25 years.

Rodriguez and his co-founder William Lonergan Hill were arrested last week, as authorities shuttered Samurai Wallet services. Samourai Wallet allegedly processed more than $2 billion worth of dirty funds between 2015 and 2024, prosecutors said at an arraignment in a Manhattan court. That includes more than $100 million of transactions of dark web marketplaces’ laundered proceeds, they allege.

The arrests form part of a larger crackdown on so-called crypto mixers, or tools that scramble digital token transactions to obfuscate their origins. Last September, Tornado Cash developer Roman Storm pled not guilty to similar mixer-related money laundering charges.

Mixers are designed to thwart cryptocurrency transaction tracking, making them popular among bad actors who need to launder their criminal proceeds.

Rodriguez was released on a $1 million bond, according to CoinDesk. His next hearing will be in Manhattan on May 14.