Biography
William Lonergan Hill is a co-founder and chief technology officer of Samourai Wallet, a Bitcoin privacy ("mixing") wallet. Arrested in Portugal on April 24, 2024 and charged with conspiracy to operate an unlicensed money-transmitting business and money-laundering conspiracy, he pleaded guilty in July 2025 to the unlicensed-money-transmitting count and was sentenced by U.S. District Judge Denise L. Cote on November 19, 2025 to four years in federal prison and a $250,000 fine. Like his co-defendant Keonne Rodriguez, Hill was championed by privacy and developer-freedom advocates who argued the prosecution criminalized the development of financial-privacy software.