Bitcoin Magazine

Samourai Letter #6: Two Years In

Dear Reader,

I write this letter to you before the sun has made her first appearance. The moon still reigns on this day, April 24th 2026. At this same exact time, 5:00 AM, only two years prior, my wife Lauren and I were both awaken dramatically to sirens, flashing lights, and brisk commands shouted over a megaphone.

“Keonne Rodriguez, this is the FBI, come out with your hands up IMMEDIATELY!” was repeatedly shouted. Over 50 armed FBI tactical agents pointed their assault rifles at our chests. Drones, armored vehicles, assault rifles, men dressed like GI-JOE, all swarmed the quiet humble small town where we lived. Once arrested, handcuffed, placed in the back of a police cruiser, Biden’s lackeys descended on my home like a swarm of ants hopped up on adrenaline.

The drone was flown through the house first to clear the way, the GI-JOEs followed, finally the army of blue haired DEI hires and the puny men who looked like they would be defeated by the thought of a single push-up shuffled their way in. I knew the tech team the moment I saw them.

They would be going through my hard drives and USB sticks. I was most worried about my wife who at this point was still detained in handcuffs. I was relieved when they let her leave and my worry immediately was directed toward my cat who I knew would quite happily take advantage of the hubbub and the wide open doors to go on one of her unmonitored adventures around the village.

That is how my day started on April 24, 2024. Two years later, I start my day markedly differently. I wake up at FPC Morgantown. Federal prison. I am told when I can sleep, when I can wake, when I can eat, when I can shower, what I can wear, and even to some degree what I can think.

My days are structured around shouted commands over a loud speaker and a book of regulations I am expected to follow. In prison your identity is stripped from you. In here it is ‘us and them’, convicts and guards, inmates and CO’s. Don’t get me wrong, most of the CO’s are decent enough, they are here to do a job, and they do it well. Treat them with respect and don’t mess around with contraband (mostly cellphones and vapes) and they will generally treat you well enough. But at the end of the day, they go home and you don’t. So here I am, inmate # 11404-511, a federal prisoner.

Two years ago today an overzealous and politicized FBI under corrupt leadership, under a corrupt presidential administration, acting under a corrupt Department of Justice that empowered a corrupt US Attorney that delegated authority to corrupt AUSA’s; indicted, raided, and arrested me and Bill, two American software developers. Just another two casualties in the Biden ‘War on Crypto’.

Two small fishes with no political friends or influence. Two guys who wrote software and gave away code that worked so well they had no choice but to change the rules of the game and go after us with the full force and might of the United States government.