US Court Hands Crypto Mixer Operator 3-Year Jail Term
The post US Court Hands Crypto Mixer Operator 3-Year Jail Term appeared on BitcoinEthereumNews.com.
In an interesting development, the US courts have sentenced a crypto mixer operator from Ohio to jail. This development comes amidst active enforcement actions by US prosecutors on crypto mixers due to their reported role in aiding money laundering, hacks, and other illicit activities. Helix Founder To Serve 3-Year Prison Sentence, Forfeit Over $700 Million In an official release, the US Department of Justice (DOJ) announced that Larry Harmon, founder and operator of crypto mixer Helix, has received a three-year jail sentence. Larry Harmon pled guilty to conspiracy to commit money laundering back in 2021, following an indictment in his role for operating Helix which was used to launder 354,468 Bitcoin, valued at over $300 million, in proceeds of drug trafficking. The developer from Ohio also ran a darknet search engine called Grams which allowed users access to contraband items including hacking tools, fake documents, hard drugs, etc. Grams operated in conjunction with Helix on the darknet with both applications mostly being used for drug sales, a percentage of which was remitted to Harmon as commission and operating fees. The DOJ stated that Harmon ran Helix from 2014-2017, shutting the crypto mixer service voluntarily before his arrest in 2020. In a court ruling on November 15, US Judge Beryl Howell of the District of Columbia sentenced Larry Harmon to three years in prison, with an additional three years of supervised release. Prosecutors had initially sought a six-year prison term for the 41-year-old defendant, however, Harmon’s cooperation with law enforcement as seen in his testimony in the trial of Roman Sterlingov, operator of crypto mixer Bitcoin Fog, coupled with the “early” termination of the Helix mixer years before his arrest earned him some credit with the Judge. In addition to the given prison sentence, the convicted crypto mixer operator is to forfeit…
Filed under: News - @ November 17, 2024 1:06 am