Ohio man Larry Dean Harmon will spend three years in jail and have greater than $400 million value of cryptocurrency and different belongings confiscated, the U.S. Division of Justice introduced on Friday. Harmon was indicted in 2020 on conspiracy to commit cash laundering fees associated to Helix, a darknet cryptocurrency “mixer” service he ran.
Companies equivalent to Helix, also referred to as cryptocurrency “tumbling,” are designed to cover cryptocurrency transactions (usually unlawful medicine) and the identities of these concerned. Based on the Justice Division announcement, from 2014 to 2017, Harmon processed greater than 350,000 Bitcoins (roughly $311 million on the time) in such transactions.
Harmon pleaded responsible to conspiracy to commit cash laundering in August 2021 and can bear three years of supervised launch after serving his sentence. He additionally obtained a forfeiture judgment of $311,145,854.
He may have confronted 20 years in jail, however after he assisted in a number of different investigations, the choose within the case gave him a lighter sentence as a result of wall avenue journal notes. This reportedly included his testimony on the trial of Roman Sterlingov, who ran one other cryptocurrency mixer known as Bitcoin Mist.