Helix Mixer Service Operator Arrested for Laundering Over $300 Million
U.S. authorities have arrested and charged 36-year-old Larry Harmon from Ohio. He is accused of operating the Helix cryptocurrency mixer service, which functioned on the darknet and helped criminals conceal the origins of Bitcoin transactions. Such services are designed to “cover tracks” by turning a simple transfer from one account to another into a complex scheme: instead of a single transaction, the service splits the payment into hundreds or thousands of smaller transfers, which are sent to different accounts and pass through numerous wallets before reaching their final destination.
“The sole purpose of Harmon’s operations was to hide criminal transactions on the darknet from law enforcement, but thanks to our growing expertise in this area, he was unable to keep his promises,” the Department of Justice press release states.
According to law enforcement, Helix was only a side project for Harmon, connected to his main service, Grams—a search engine that indexed numerous drug-related marketplaces on the darknet. Grams allowed users to search for drugs and find the best deals. Helix, in turn, was an add-on that offered potential buyers a way to hide their identities when making purchases.
The Justice Department reports that Harmon operated Helix from 2014 to 2017, and through his service, 354,468 bitcoins were laundered. At the time of the transactions, this amount was worth about $300 million, and today it is valued at nearly $3.5 billion.
As the service grew, Harmon collaborated with other darknet services. According to the indictment, he worked with AlphaBay, the largest marketplace of its time, and AlphaBay recommended Helix to its users as a safe and reliable Bitcoin mixer service.
Harmon charged a 2.5% commission for all Helix transactions. As a result, law enforcement is now seeking not only to imprison Harmon but also to confiscate three properties he allegedly purchased with illegally obtained funds.
The case against Larry Harmon is the first time U.S. authorities have prosecuted a mixer service operator.
For reference, in 2017, one of the world’s largest and most popular mixer services at the time, BitMixer, unexpectedly announced its closure. This happened shortly after law enforcement shut down the AlphaBay and Hansa marketplaces, as well as after the arrest of Alexander Vinnik and the offline shutdown of BTC-e. In their farewell message, BitMixer’s administrators noted that such services are always popular among cybercriminals and warned that “very soon, this kind of activity will be considered illegal in most countries.”