- U.S. authorities finalized the forfeiture of over $400 million in assets linked to the darknet cryptocurrency mixer Helix.
- Helix processed over 354,468 Bitcoin, worth approximately $311 million at the time, as an unregistered service for darknet markets.
- Its operator, Larry Dean Harmon, pleaded guilty to money laundering conspiracy and failed to register the service with FinCEN.
- The final forfeiture order was entered by a federal judge in late January, transferring legal ownership to the government.
U.S. authorities have secured legal title to more than $400 million in assets tied to the darknet crypto mixer Helix, finalizing a major forfeiture in recent weeks. The Department of Justice announced the action, which follows a judge’s final order in late January, against the service that laundered proceeds from online drug markets. Helix operated from 2014 to 2017, processing nearly 355,000 Bitcoin worth over $311 million at the time, according to a statement from the DOJ.
The service functioned as a dedicated laundering hub by pooling and redistributing Bitcoin to obscure transaction trails for criminal clients. Consequently, its operator, Larry Dean Harmon, never registered Helix as a money services business with the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network. He also failed to implement an anti-money laundering program or file suspicious activity reports, prosecutors alleged. Harmon was indicted in 2019 and later pleaded guilty to conspiring to launder money in 2021.
An expert from TRM Labs, Ari Redbord, told Decrypt that “taking it down treats that infrastructure like any other part of a criminal supply chain.” He added that such actions force illicit actors into less direct and more exposed paths for moving funds. Meanwhile, a separate civil case from 2022 noted Harmon later promoted a separate product to bypass KYC requirements. The government’s civil case was based on violations of the Bank Secrecy Act, with FinCEN having imposed an unpaid civil penalty in 2020.
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