NEW YORK — William “Bill” Hill, 67, one of the co-founders of Bitcoin mixer Samourai Wallet, was sentenced Wednesday to four years in prison for his role in creating the privacy tool that prosecutors say was used to launder at least $237 million in criminal proceeds.
District Judge Denise Cote of the Southern District of New York (SDNY), who recently sentenced Samourai Wallet developer Keonne Rodriguez to the statutory maximum of five years in prison for the same crime – conspiracy to operate an unlicensed money transmitting business, to which both men pleaded guilty in July – said she was “modifying” Hill’s sentence due to several mitigating factors, including Hill’s recent autism diagnosis and his advanced age.
“I accept that this is a more difficult time for the accused than for many other people to be in prison,” Cote said. “Otherwise I would impose a sentence of 60 months.”
Hill’s attorney, Roger Burlingame of Dechert LLP, spent a considerable portion of Wednesday’s hearing explaining how Hill’s autism was the explanation – or, as Burlingame put it, “the key that unlocks the riddle” – for Hill’s conduct.
Bitcoin, Burlingame said, was “like catnip” to a black-and-white thinker like Hill, who was attracted to the “idealism and absolutism” of blockchain technology, the “noble goal… of fending off an encroaching government, an Orwellian dystopia,” and a built-in community of bitcoin enthusiasts — something he said Hill “never had before in his entire life.”
Hill’s lawyer also said his autism explained why he thought what he was doing with Samourai Wallet was legal. Because the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) did not require non-custodial wallets to register as money transmitting businesses, Burlingame said Hill acted as if he had a “force field” around his actions, adding that Hill came to see this as a “pathetically naive view…a magical, autistic view of the world.”
Burlingame called for Hill to be sentenced to prison, adding that his three-month stay in a Portuguese prison last year was enough punishment to deter him from breaking the law again.
“Prison is extraordinarily hard on him given his extreme sensitivity,” Burlingame said, adding that the forced socialization of being in prison is “torture” for Hill.
As Burlingame spoke, Cote interjected several times to ask whether Hill understood that what he did was morally wrong, not just illegal.
“There’s a way to pretend no laws were broken — that’s just not true,” Cote said. “I completely reject that the accused does not know the difference between right and wrong, or that his autism prevented him from living a moral life.”
When it was Hill’s turn to address the judge, he was visibly emotional as he spoke about the negative impact his prosecution had had on his wife, Sabrina, and his extended family.
“I told myself that my job was to [freedom] but in truth, I was rationalizing my own hubris,” Hill said. “I learned a painful but essential lesson from this experience and I take full responsibility for my actions.”
In addition to the 48-month prison sentence, Cote sentenced Hill to three years of supervised release, which he will be able to serve from Lisbon, where he lives with his wife, plus a $250,000 fine. Cote said she would recommend that Hill receive credit for the time he served in Portugal before being extradited to the United States, which could shave 11 weeks off his remaining sentence.
Hill must turn himself in to begin his sentence by January 2, 2026.
