CLEVELAND, Ohio – An Akron man was sentenced Friday to three years in prison for laundering more than $300 million in bitcoin, with much of it through the darknet.
U.S. District Judge Beryl Howell handed down the sentence more than three years after Larry Dean Harmon, 41, pleaded guilty to the charges in a federal court in Washington, D.C.
Harmon, 41, ran a cryptocurrency “mixer” called Helix that prosecutors said involved more than $311 million worth of transactions. A cryptocurrency “mixer” is often used to obscure the source of a person’s cryptocurrency, some examples of which include Bitcoin, Ethereum and Tether.
Helix was “highly sought after by online drug dealers who needed to launder their illicit proceeds,” the U.S. Department of Justice said Friday. Harmon took steps to integrate Helix into darknet markets and bitcoin withdrawal services, prosecutors said. In total, investigators traced tens of millions of dollars from darknet markets to Helix, according to the Justice Department. The scheme ran from 2014 to 2017.
Though Harmon pleaded guilty in August 2021, he was not sentenced until Friday.
He was also assessed a forfeiture judgment of $311 million, forcing him to give up cryptocurrencies, real estate and other monetary assets. In court filings, federal prosecutors said Harmon accepted responsibility and cooperated with investigators in the case.
The judgment is on top of a $60 million civil penalty assessed by the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network, a division of the U.S. Department of the Treasury, according to the Justice Department.
Cleveland.com and The Plain Dealer reached out to Harmon’s attorney, Charles Flood, seeking a comment.