A United States District Court in Columbia sentenced an Ohio man to three years in prison for laundering over 350,000 bitcoins, worth $300 million at the start of the case. Surprisingly, Judge Beryl Howell granted him leniency, considering his valuable cooperation with U.S. prosecutors in investigating other crypto crimes.
Sentenced to Three Years in Prison
The case began in 2019 and involved a man identified as Larry Harmon. He is the mastermind behind Grams, a Darknet search engine set up in 2014. Grams eased finding and buying illicit goods, including hacking tools, stolen credit card information, and forged documents.
He later established Helix, another darknet-based service for crypto laundering. The platform, which functioned as a Bitcoin mixer, concealed transactions from law enforcement. The technology propelled hundreds of drug dealers to operate with less or no fear of punishment by the law. The dark innovator used it to launder funds worth over $31.85 billion.
Interestingly, Harmon had already shut down Helix two years before his arrest, which Judge Howell took into consideration when deciding on the sentence. The judge noted Harmon’s assistance to law enforcement and his decision to cooperate, stating, “He turned himself around before he was arrested in this case.”
Fast-forward to today. Following extensive hearings, the judge departed from the prosecutors’ recommended sentence of 8 years, handing Harmon down a 3-year prison term. Notably, the felon was also hit with a $60 million civil fine from the U.S. Treasury Department.
Meanwhile, Harmon’s brother, Gary, was accused of using his credentials to steal 713 bitcoins from an evidence locker. At the time of prosecution, the stolen assets were worth $5 million. He later pleaded guilty and was sentenced to four years in prison.
Other Similar Cases
The Harmon case brings to mind other similar crypto crime cases. Ross Ulbricht is currently serving a life sentence for creating and operating another darknet marketplace, Silk Road. However, President-elect Donald Trump has pledged to reduce his prison time.
Alexey Pertsev, one of the original developers of the Tornado Cash crypto mixer, has been sentenced to over five years in prison by a Dutch court. Nonetheless, crypto criminals still use the platform to obfuscate blockchain transactions. Recently, the Radiant Capital hacker moved stolen funds to the protocol.
