Samourai Wallet Co-founder Faces New Prison Transfer After 30-Day Ordeal

Samourai Wallet co-founder Keonne Rodriguez faces another federal prison transfer after the drug treatment program at FCI McKean was deactivated, he said Wednesday. McKean's warden told program participants that Rodriguez and about 70 other inmates would be moved to facilities where treatment still runs.

The move comes 30 days after Rodriguez arrived at McKean, following a journey he called the "absolute worst 30 days" of his life in a letter published by The Rage. The trip from FPC Morgantown began with ankle shackles and handcuffs attached to a waist chain. Inmates were then bused to an airport and flown to the Federal Transfer Center in Oklahoma City.

At the Oklahoma City facility, Rodriguez said he was held with prisoners from different security classifications and spent most of his time locked in a cell. He wrote that he wondered whether "all the circles of hell" were contained inside the transfer center. He was eventually assigned a cell with an inmate serving a murder sentence and given only part of a foam mattress, leaving part of his body resting on a metal bunk overnight.

The sentence and what completion was worth

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 co-founder William Lonergan Hill transmitted more than $237 million in criminal proceeds through Samourai.

He entered McKean's drug treatment program because completing it could reduce that sentence by up to a year. The program's deactivation now puts that credit at risk. Rodriguez had asked to make the roughly four-hour trip from Morgantown to McKean himself; the request was denied.

The Bank Secrecy Act charge behind Rodriguez's sentence sits at the center of the CLARITY Act debate. The latest Senate draft retained Blockchain Regulatory Certainty Act provisions that protect non-controlling developers from the same money-transmission requirements Rodriguez was convicted under. The Senate failed to advance the bill on Sept. 15 after a procedural vote fell short of the 60 votes needed.

It is not yet clear which facility Rodriguez will be sent to next, when the transfer will happen, or whether the treatment credit survives the move.