Larry Harmon was handed a lenient sentence of three years for his role in operating the Helix Bitcoin mixer.
Larry Harmon, the individual behind the Helix Bitcoin mixer, was sentenced to three years in prison by District of Columbia District Court Judge Beryl Howell for helping cybercriminals launder about 350,000 bitcoin.
While he faced a sentence of up to 20 years, his cooperation with prosecutors on another case has helped him receive less jail time. Harmon’s help was sought in the government’s case against Bitcoin Fog founder Roman Sterlingov, who was sentenced to 12.5 years on November 8. He previously paid a fine of $60 million to the Financial Crime Enforcement Network in 2020. Harmon was arrested that same year and admitted to aiding money laundering in 2021.
During the sentencing hearing, Judge Howell mentioned, “He turned himself around before he was arrested in this case.” She was referring to Harmon shutting down the mixer two years before his arrest, which also helped in his relatively short sentencing. Beyond the jail time, he was ordered to pay $311 million in cash. The authorities also seized over $400 million via the crypto, real estate, and monetary assets he held.
“Helix processed at least approximately 354,468 bitcoin — the equivalent of approximately $311,145,854 in U.S. dollars at the time of the transactions — on behalf of its customers, including customers in the District of Columbia,” a Department of Justice (DoJ) release read. “Much of those funds were coming from or going to darknet drug markets. Harmon retained a percentage of these transactions as his commissions and fees for operating Helix.”
Harmon Committed “Staggering” Crimes
Prosecutor Alden Pelker highlighted the scale of his services, saying, “He brought search engine optimization to local cocaine distributors.” Pelker also claimed Harmon’s crimes were “staggering.”
Harmon ran the mixer between 2014 and 2017 alongside the Grams darknet search engine, which he also operated. The DoJ release added, “Harmon worked to ensure Grams and Helix connected to or otherwise supported all of the major darknet markets at the time,” adding, “Harmon developed an Application Program Interface (API) to allow darknet markets to integrate Helix directly into their bitcoin withdrawal systems.”
Harmon had previously argued with the court that bitcoin was not real money and, thus, it could not try him for money laundering. His younger brother Gary Harmon used Larry’s wallet passwords to move 712 bitcoin and was arrested for the same.
