Samourai Wallet co-founder faces new transfer after 30-day ordeal

Samourai Wallet co-founder Keonne Rodriguez faces another prison transfer after the drug treatment program at FCI McKean was deactivated, he said Wednesday.

Rodriguez said on X that McKean’s warden told program participants that Rodriguez and 70 others would be moved to facilities where treatment remains available. He entered the program because completing it could reduce his sentence by up to a year.

In a letter published by The Rage, Rodriguez called his earlier journey from FPC Morgantown to McKean the “absolute worst 30 days” of his life. He said his request to make the roughly four-hour trip himself was denied.

Rodriguez is serving a five-year sentence after pleading guilty to conspiring to operate an unlicensed money-transmitting business. The Justice Department said he and Samourai co-founder William Lonergan Hill transmitted more than $237 million in criminal proceeds through the service.

A four-hour drive became 30 days in transit

Rodriguez said inmates leaving Morgantown were placed in ankle shackles and handcuffs attached to waist chains before being taken by bus to an airport and flown to the Federal Transfer Center in Oklahoma City.

Related: Samourai Wallet co-founder spends Christmas Eve recounting first day in prison

At the facility, Rodriguez said he was held with prisoners from different security classifications and spent most of his time locked in a cell. At one point, he wrote that he wondered whether “all the circles of hell” were contained within the federal transfer facility.

Rodriguez said he was eventually assigned a cell with an inmate serving a murder sentence and was given only part of a foam mattress, leaving part of his body resting on a metal bunk overnight. 

Developer protections remain uncertain after CLARITY setback

The case unfolded alongside congressional efforts to protect developers who do not control users’ assets from being treated as financial intermediaries.

The latest Senate CLARITY Act draft retained Blockchain Regulatory Certainty Act provisions protecting non-controlling developers from certain money-transmission requirements under the Bank Secrecy Act.

The Senate failed to advance the CLARITY Act on Sept. 15 after a procedural vote fell short of the 60 votes needed to move the legislation forward.

Magazine: Winners and losers of the SEC’s new tokenized stocks rules