Crypto Mixer Co-Founder Gets Five Years in Money-Laundering Case

A co-founder of cryptocurrency mixer Samourai Wallet was ordered to spend five years behind bars for running a business that laundered hundreds of millions of dollars from illegal dark web transactions and fraud schemes.

Keonne Rodriguez was sentenced Thursday by US District Judge Denise Cote. The prison term was the maximum for the crime of conspiring to operate an unlicensed money-transmitting business. Rodriguez, 37, pleaded guilty to that count in July as part of a deal with prosecutors.

At Rodriguez’s sentencing, the judge scolded him for helping to launder money often fleeced from unsuspecting consumers. “You chose to use ...