A Samourai Wallet co-founder pleaded not guilty on Monday to federal charges relating to his creation of a tool that makes crypto transactions difficult to trace, as U.S. authorities crack down on privacy-focused technology, CoinDesk reported.

Keonne Rodriguez, 35, faces two charges: Conspiracy to commit money laundering and conspiracy to operate an unlicensed money transmitting business. The charges carry a combined maximum prison sentence of 25 years.

Rodriguez and his co-founder William Lonergan Hill were arrested last week, as authorities shuttered Samurai Wallet services. Samourai Wallet allegedly processed more than $2 billion worth of dirty funds between 2015 and 2024, prosecutors said at an arraignment in a Manhattan court. That includes more than $100 million of transactions of …