NEW YORK—William “Bill” Hill, 67, one of the co-founders of Bitcoin mixer Samourai Wallet, was sentenced to four years in prison Wednesday for his role in creating privacy tools that prosecutors say were used to launder at least $237 million in criminal proceeds.
District Judge Denise Cote of the Southern District of New York (SDNY), who Fellow Samourai Wallet developer Keonne Rodriguez was recently punished With a 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 — he said he was “differentiating” Hill’s sentence because of several mitigating factors, including Hill’s recent autism diagnosis and his advanced age.
“I accept that it’s going to be a harder time for the defendant to go to jail than a lot of other people,” Cote said. “I will impose a sentence of 60 months otherwise.”
Hill’s attorney, Roger Burlingame of Dechert LLP, spent a large portion of Wednesday’s hearing detailing how Hill’s autism is the explanation — or, as Burlingame puts it, “the key that unlocks the riddle” — for Hill’s behavior.
Bitcoin, Burlingame said, was “like catnip” to a black and white thinker like Hill, who was drawn to the “idealism and absolutism” of blockchain technology, the “noble purpose … of avoiding an encroaching government, an Orwellian dystopia,” and a built-in community of fellow Bitcoin Enthusiasts—something he said Hill “had never seen before in his entire life.”
Hill’s attorney also said his autism explained why he thought what he was doing with the Samourai Wallet was legal. Because the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FINCEN) does not require non-custodial wallets to register as money sending businesses, Burlingame said Hill acted as if there was a “Forcefield” around his actions, adding that Hill saw it as a “pathetically naive view … a magical-minded, autistic view of the world.”
Burlingame asked that Hill be punished for time served, adding that his three-month stint in a Portuguese prison last year was enough punishment to prevent him from breaking the law again.
“Jail was extremely difficult for him given his extreme sensitivity,” Burlingame said, adding that the forced socialization of being in prison was “torturous” for Hill.
As Burlingame spoke, Cote reached out several times to ask if Hill understood what he had done was morally wrong, not just illegal.
“There’s a way of arguing that no law has been broken — that’s just not true,” Cote said. “I absolutely deny that the defendant does not know the difference between right and wrong, or that his autism has prevented him from living a moral life.”
When it was Hill to meet the judge, he was clearly emotional as he talked about the negative impact his prosecution had on his wife, Sabrina, and his extended family.
“I told myself my work was about (freedom) but in reality, I was justifying my own hubris,” Hill said. “I learned a painful but important lesson from this experience and take full responsibility for my actions.”
In addition to the sentence of 48 months in prison, Cote sentenced Hill to a period of supervised release of three years, which will allow him to serve from Lisbon, where he lives with his wife, along with a fine of $ 250,000. Cote said he recommended that Hill receive credit for the time he served in Portugal before he was extradited to the United States, potentially shaving 11 weeks off his remaining sentence.
Hill must appear on his own behalf to begin his sentence on January 2, 2026.
