Case Details

Full Name: Keonne Rodriguez

State: New York

District: Southern District of New York

Defendants: United States v. Keonne Rodriguez

Case Number: 24 Cr. 217 (LGS) (SDNY)

Type of Case: Criminal

Initiation Date: April 23, 2024

Disposition: Convicted and Sentenced

Case Status: Sentenced and imprisoned

Sentence: 5 years’ imprisonment (plus supervised release and financial penalties)

Time Served: Ongoing

Release Date: 2/10/2030

Case Summary

Rodriguez, a founder of Samourai Wallet, was prosecuted for developing a non-custodial Bitcoin wallet with privacy features, including CoinJoin-style tools, that allowed users to obscure transaction histories while he never took custody of customer funds. He was charged and later convicted on conspiracy to commit money laundering and operating an unlicensed money transmitting business, with federal agents executing a pre-dawn, militarized raid on his home in April 2024, despite his role being that of an open-source software developer rather than a traditional financial intermediary.

Problems with the Case

WW frames the Samourai Wallet prosecution of Rodriguez as a financial-privacy and open-source–development case, arguing that prosecutors stretched money-laundering and money-transmitter laws to reach a non-custodial wallet in conflict with FinCEN guidance, and that the government’s theory criminalizes publishing privacy-preserving code and treats neutral software tools as if they were inherently illicit.