Ohio man, 36, accused of laundering near $ 300 million for some cybercriminals of darknet through its service of ” Bitcoin Mixer “.
The US Department of Justice has just announced the arrest of Larry Harmon. The owner ofHelix is accused of having facilitated the money laundering through his service and operating an unlicensed money transfer business.
Launched in 2014, Helix was a service of crypto-mixer which allowed you to mix transactions to make bitcoins or other less traceable and identifiable cryptocurrencies, especially to hide the true source of funds.
According to the prosecution, Helix would have moved more than 350,000 bitcoins – approximately $ 300 million at the time of the events (2014 to 2017) – on behalf of its customers.
The vast majority of tokens are said to come from darknet, and in particular the popular market place ALPHABAY, closed in 2017 and with which Harmon had established a partnership to promote the use of its service.
Helix would have laundered hundreds of millions of dollars from illicit products. This indictment emphasizes that trying to mask virtual currency transactions in this way is a crime, and that the Department can and will ensure that crime does not pay, ”Said Deputy Attorney General Brian A. Benczkowski of the Department of Justice’s criminal division.
Last year, Europol announced to have closed Bestmixer.io, another important crypto-mixer service.
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