Keonne Rodriguez

Keonne Rodriguez is an American software developer and co-founder of Samourai Wallet, a Bitcoin Mixer designed to enhance transaction privacy for Bitcoin users. In 2024, Rodriguez and fellow co-founder William Lonergan Hill were arrested and later pled guilty to operating an unlicensed money-transmitting business for creating the software for the application. His prosecution drew criticism from privacy advocates and civil liberties groups, who argued that the case threatened financial privacy, open source development, and the principle of code as speech.

Background In 2015, Rodriguez co-founded Samourai wallet as a non-custodial wallet that enabled privacy for on-chain bitcoin transactions through features such as Whirlpool, a coin-mixing service that mixes one bitcoin transactions with other transactions.

Legal issues On April 24, 2024, the U.S. Department of Justice announced the arrests of Rodriguez and Hill. Prosecutors of the Southern District of New York alleged that the creation of Samourai wallet source code constituted the operation of an unlicensed money-transmitting business and conspiracy to commit money laundering.

In July 2025, Rodriguez and Hill pleaded guilty to just the charge of unlicensed money transmission.

Reactions to prosecution Privacy advocates have denounced Rodriguez' federal prosecution, stating that Samourai wallet protects its users' financial privacy, which they regard as a fundamental human right. Critics of the prosecution assert that financial privacy is essential to protect against state surveillance and control of financial transactions and other personal activities. Supporters of Rodriguez also hold that the creation and publication of Samourai's source code are forms of protected speech under the "code as speech" doctrine, established by Bernstein v. United States, emphasizing that Rodriguez merely wrote and distributed computer code. Other supporters have cited the 2024 TD bank money laundering scandal, in which the Justice Department collected the largest penalty ever under the Bank Secrecy Act after finding bank employees accepted bribes to facilitate money laundering, resulting in financial penalties without jail penalties. Bitcoin users have also criticized Rodriguez' prosecution since many used the tool to improve privacy in their transactions.

In September 2024, following the shutdown of Samourai, a group of developers created the Ashigaru wallet, an open-source wallet based on the Samourai code. In December 2025, President Donald Trump indicated he would look at the case and potentially issue Rodriguez a pardon.