An Ohio man named Larry Dean Harmon will be sentenced to three years in prison and have $400 million worth of cryptocurrencies and other assets forfeited, the Justice Department announced. announced on Friday. Harmon was indicted in 2020 on charges of money laundering conspiracy related to Helix, a dark web cryptocurrency “mixer” service he operated.
Services like Helix, also known as cryptocurrency “tumbling,” are designed to hide the identities of cryptocurrency transactions (often illegal drugs) and the people involved in them. Harmon processed more than 350,000 bitcoins (approximately $311 million USD at the time) in such transactions between 2014 and 2017, according to a statement from the Department of Justice.
Harmon pled guilty to money laundering conspiracy in August 2021 and will serve three years of supervised release after completing his sentence. He was also sentenced to a forfeiture judgment of $311,145,854.
He could have received 20 years in prison, but the judge in the case gave him a more lenient sentence because of his cooperation in several other investigations. wall street journal memo. This reportedly includes testimony in the trial of Roman Sterlingov, who ran another crypto mixer called Bitcoin Fog.
