William Lonergan Hill
Co-founder and CTO of Samourai Wallet. He pleaded guilty in 2025 to conspiracy to operate an unlicensed money-transmitting business and was sentenced to four years in prison; the judge cited his age and an autism diagnosis as mitigating factors.
Also known as: William Hill, William Lonergan Hill
Note: Hill pleaded guilty to operating an unlicensed money transmitter (the money-laundering count was dropped).
Bio
William Lonergan Hill co-founded Samourai Wallet and served as its CTO, building its Whirlpool/Ricochet privacy tools. Prosecutors said he promoted Samourai on the darknet forum Dread as a way to "clean dirty BTC." [1][2]
Legal outcome
Arrested in Portugal in April 2024 and later extradited, Hill pleaded guilty in July 2025 and, on November 19, 2025, was sentenced to 48 months in prison plus a $250,000 fine and three years of supervised release; the court applied a downward variance citing his age (67) and a recent autism-spectrum diagnosis. [1][2]
Bracketed numbers refer to the numbered sources listed below.
Linked scams & cases
Sources (2)
See also
Luke BelmarIndividualsCryptocurrency influencer Luke Belmar (@lukebelmar on X) became the subject of controversy following allegations related to the promotion of a memecoin. Critics on social media alleged that Belmar used a series of posts referencing a forthcoming cryptocurrency project and a large-scale airdrop to generate interest in a token without explicitly identifying a specific contract address. Belmar published multiple posts discussing an upcoming memecoin, describing plans for what he characterized as a major airdrop and making comparisons to other cryptocurrency projects. Because no contract address was publicly provided, several tokens emerged claiming association with his statements. Critics alleged that this ambiguity enabled speculation around multiple tokens while avoiding a direct endorsement of any particular asset.
- 2025 Czech government Bitcoin scandalOtherA political-corruption scandal in which the Czech Ministry of Justice, under minister Pavel Blažek, accepted a donation of 468 bitcoin (~$45M) in early 2025 from Tomáš Jiříkovský, a convicted darknet/drug figure, then sold part of it. After Deník N revealed the deal in May 2025, Blažek resigned, a criminal money-laundering investigation followed, and the government narrowly survived a no-confidence vote.
This page was last updated on Jun 15, 2026. View revision history.