Imprisoned Samourai Wallet co-founder Keonne Rodriguez has published a public appeal from FPC Morgantown federal prison, asking Bitcoin holders to donate to a wallet address tied to his family's mounting legal debt. According to reports from CoinDesk, Rodriguez wrote on X (Twitter) that he and his wife Lauren owe more than $2 million in legal fees. The appeal directs donations to the address bc1qtjjcvn98wh7dfd55m8kxhjcfexanttwt8gtan8, with private alternatives available through his wife's X (Twitter) account.
Rodriguez faces a $250,000 court-imposed fine after his guilty plea to operating an unlicensed money-transmitting business. As reported by CoinDesk, he is five months into a 60-month sentence at the West Virginia camp and surrendered to federal custody in December 2025. He had previously been released on a $1 million bond before sentencing. Rodriguez said lawyers and the U.S. Department of Justice are pressing for payment, with federal prosecutors alleging that Samourai processed over $237 million in criminal proceeds.
Hope for a presidential pardon stirred briefly during the Bitcoin 2026 conference but has since dimmed. According to CoinDesk, President Trump had said in late 2025 he would consider a pardon, but Rodriguez now calls those prospects 'very low.' In his May 6 post, he stated, 'I am simply a federal prisoner without money, power, or influence, and I will serve my full sentence.'
The wallet handled more than $2 billion across over 100,000 users since 2015, as reported by CoinDesk. Rodriguez and co-founder William Lonergan Hill pleaded guilty in 2025 to conspiracy to operate an unlicensed money-transmitting business, with Hill receiving a four-year sentence. The two also forfeited approximately $6.37 million in earned fees as part of a larger money judgment. A seizure warrant for Samourai's mobile application was served on the Google Play Store, resulting in the application no longer being available for download from the Google Play Store in the United States.
