Larry Harmon has been sentenced to three years in prison for helping criminals launder money through the Helix cryptocurrency mixer, Cointelegraph reported. The judge said the sentence was lenient because of his assistance in the Bitcoin Fog case.
Harmon faced a maximum sentence of 20 years in prison, and the government had recommended 75 months. He was fined $60 million by the Treasury Department's Financial Crimes Enforcement Network in 2020. Harmon helped prosecute Bitcoin Fog operator Roman Sterlingov, who was sentenced to 12.5 years in prison.
Harmon was ordered to forfeit $311 million in cash and over $400 million in cryptocurrency, real estate, and monetary assets. He was accused of transferring over 350,000 BTC through Helix, which was worth over $300 million at the time.
Harmon was arrested in February 2020 and pleaded guilty the following August. He operated Helix from 2014 to 2017, working with the Grams dark web search engine. Harmon had argued that Bitcoin was not a currency and therefore could not be charged with money laundering.
Harmon’s brother, Gary Harmon, used Larry’s password to transfer 712 BTC, valued at over $5 million. Gary was arrested in July 2021, sentenced to four years in prison, and ordered to surrender $20 million in cryptocurrency.
