Larry Harmon, a 38-year-old Ohio resident who ran a bitcoin dark web mixer called Helix, admitted to laundering $ 300 million. The date of his sentence has not been announced yet.
During the period from June 6, 2014, to December 16, 2017, the Helix mixer made more than 1.2 million transactions. If it failed to implement appropriate policies and internal controls that filtered suspicious transactions. Harmon's clients are said to have included drug dealers, swindlers, and neo-Nazi groups.
Harmon was arrested last February and then fined $ 60 million by the US Treasury Department.
Earlier, he tried to plead not guilty. His lawyers argued that bitcoin was not legally defined as "money". But this argument was rejected by the court.
Assistant Attorney General Brian Benczkowski claims that the indictment aims to emphasize that it is illegal to obscure cryptocurrency transactions:
"This indictment underscores that seeking to obscure virtual currency transactions in this way is a crime."
In April, U.S. authorities also arrested Roman Sterlingov, a 32-year-old Russian-Swedish citizen who allegedly used a Bitcoin Fog mixer. According to the statement, the mixing service was used to wash stolen passwords from exchange offices.
Source:
https://u.today/bitcoin-mixer-operator-pleads-guilty-to-laundering-300-million
