In the two decades that No Pasarán has roamed the internet, it has been a rare, not to mention an unheard-of, occasion that the blog has championed something like a Change.org page. That ends today. With the fate of Bill and Keonne, two software developers being hounded into jail by the Clinton-Obama-Biden judges for four to five years.
Imagine pouring your heart into open-source code that empowers everyday people to protect their financial privacy in a transparent crypto world, much like cash does in traditional finance. Now imagine being slammed with a maximum five-year prison sentence simply because a tiny fraction of users (just 10% of $2B+ in transactions, amounting to $237M) misused it for illicit purposes. That's the nightmare unfolding for Samourai Wallet developers Keonne Rodriguez and William Lonergan Hill—first-time offenders with zero criminal history—who built non-custodial Bitcoin privacy software that never held users' funds or keys. It harmed no one directly, yet they're being punished as if they ran a criminal empire.
… This isn't justice, it's a chilling attack on free speech and innovation. As Rep. Warren Davidson put it, "It’s like blaming Microsoft for drug cartels downloading and using Excel." Criminalizing code violates the First Amendment, erodes our right to financial privacy, and threatens self-custody in crypto. It stifles U.S. progress, driving projects offshore and undermining decentralization. Coin Center warns: "A delivery service that cannot access the underlying contents... is plainly not a money transmitter." The Cato Institute calls it a "chilling moment for financial privacy." And Sen. Cynthia Lummis blasts: … "wallet software is no more to blame for illicit finance than a highway is responsible for a bank robber’s getaway car."
… Join thousands demanding a presidential pardon NOW to right this wrong, demand DOJ oversight, and push for protective laws like the Blockchain Regulatory Certainty Act. Sign this petition, share it everywhere, and let's flood the White House with voices for justice.
(Check out the update at the bottom of this post.) Maybe you think that with the Change.org page alone, you don't have enough information about the Samourai Wallet case for you to really judge Bill and Keonne one way or the other. Fortunately, there is a trustworthy journalistic source that will give neutral, objective descriptions of the scandalous treatment of "two Bitcoin software developers" unleashed by the Clinton-Obama-Biden DOJ.
Trump Vowed To Stop Crypto Crackdowns, writes JOAKIM BOOK in none other than Reason. Samourai Wallet Proves He Hasn't. Not yet, anyways. Let conservatives try to reverse that — with our voices and our support. On November 6,
Keonne Rodriguez, the co-creator of the bitcoin privacy wallet Samourai, was sentenced to five years in prison and a $250,000 fine—the maximum sentence under the charge for which he pleaded guilty earlier this year. "In July, Rodriguez and his cofounder William Hill plead[ed] guilty [to] the known transmission of illicit proceeds," The Rage reported on Thursday. [Hill was sentenced to four years behind bars on November 19, writes Anna Baydakova, in addition to also a $250,000 fine.]
For your information, the only reason that Keonne and Bill pleaded guilty is that otherwise, the two "passionate software engineers" were threatened with as many as 25 years in the slammer — a quarter century (!) which, as you will read below, is totally unwarranted as well as evidence that, in the past few decades, prosecutors have been given all too many powers (see also: January 6).
Samourai Wallet did not perpetrate financial crimes, ransom data for bitcoin, or steal digital assets. Rodriguez and his team wrote code—that First Amendment–protected activity we learned to cherish after the crypto wars in the 1990s. Their service obfuscated users' bitcoin transaction histories, making it harder for observers on a public blockchain to trace funds after they had passed through the tool. In the Justice Department's view, that now constitutes money laundering and a failure to register as a money transmitter—even though Samourai never held custody of bitcoin (making the entire money-transmitting charge odd in the first place).
In the TD Bank money-laundering scandal in 2024, the Justice Department collected the largest penalty ever imposed under the Bank Secrecy Act for poor compliance practices that allowed far more illicit funds to flow through its dollar-based system than the amount of bitcoin that ever ran through Samourai. Notably, nobody went to jail for that crime, even though bank employees were bribed tens of thousands of dollars to look the other way while criminal networks laundered more than a billion dollars of illicit funds through a top-10 bank in America.
… The president has issued various crypto-related pardons. On his second day in office, he made good on a campaign promise to libertarians by pardoning Ross Ulbricht from an excessive double life sentence for building a website. Last month, he pardoned Changpeng Zhao (known as C.Z.), the billionaire former CEO of the crypto exchange Binance, following a four-month money-laundering stint (though he recently admitted to not even knowing who C.Z. is).
… It's time for the Trump administration to get its legal house in order—that should start with a pardon for Rodriguez [and Hill].
In addition, Reason broadcast a Youtube video with commentary by ZACH WEISSMUELLER, which is featured on the Bill and Keonne page. As for myself, I signed and gave to their cause. You might want to consider doing so too. As the Change.org page states,
Sign this petition, share it everywhere, and let's flood the White House with voices for justice.UPDATE: Important — Should you wish to donate, Messieurs Hill and Rodriguez would prefer you do so via their Bill and Keonne website (the donations go directly to the two men's families) rather than via the Change.org page (which goes to that website).
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