Samourai Wallet Co-Founder to Report to Prison, Cites Political Targeting in Call for Trump Pardon Keonne Rodriguez, co-founder of the cryptocurrency mixing service Samourai Wallet, has announced he will surrender to authorities on Friday to begin a five-year prison sentence. Rodriguez was convicted earlier this year on charges of conspiracy to commit money laundering and operating an unlicensed money transmitting business. In a social media post, Rodriguez framed his prosecution as a political weaponization of the legal system, specifically calling it Biden-era lawfare. He used the announcement of his impending incarceration to publicly call for a pardon from former President Donald Trump, should Trump win the upcoming presidential election. Rodriguez and his co-founder, William Hill, were arrested in April. Their service, Samourai Wallet, offered privacy-focused Bitcoin transactions through a mixing service, also known as a tumbler, which obscures the trail of cryptocurrency funds. The U.S. Department of Justice alleged the platform was deliberately designed to facilitate money laundering for criminals, citing over 100 million dollars in processed proceeds from illegal dark web markets and fraud schemes. The service allegedly operated for nearly a decade without registering as a money services business with the Treasury Department. The case has been closely watched within the cryptocurrency community, where it is seen as a significant escalation in regulatory pressure on privacy-enhancing tools. Proponents argue such tools are essential for financial privacy, akin to digital cash, while regulators and prosecutors contend they are primarily used to hide illicit activity. In his statement, Rodriguez maintained his innocence and portrayed himself and Hill as targets of a politically motivated administration seeking to criminalize software development. The call for a Trump pardon injects a direct political element into the narrative, suggesting the case is part of a broader partisan conflict over cryptocurrency regulation and the boundaries of financial innovation. Legal experts note that the request for a future pardon is highly unusual for a defendant at this stage, typically occurring after all appeals are exhausted. Rodriguezs statement appears aimed at rallying political support within certain crypto and political circles. William Hill, the other co-founder, is scheduled to be sentenced at a later date and faces a potential maximum sentence of 20 years. The Samourai Wallet domain and servers were seized by U.S. authorities at the time of the arrests. The outcome of this case is likely to influence ongoing legal debates about developer liability and how existing financial transmission laws apply to decentralized and privacy-focused cryptocurrency protocols. Rodriguezs surrender this week marks the beginning of his prison term as the broader political and legal arguments surrounding his case continue.
