An Ohio man has been sentenced to 4 years and three months behind bars after stealing 712 bitcoin ($21m), which have been seized by investigators following the arrest of his brother.
Gary James Harmon, 31, of Cleveland, stole the cryptocurrency, which was the topic of “pending legal forfeiture proceedings” within the case of his sibling, Larry Dean Harmon, based on the Division of Justice (DoJ).
Larry Harmon was arrested in February 2020 for working a darkish internet cryptocurrency mixer often called Helix. It was used to launder over 350,000 bitcoin, valued on the time of the transactions at over $300m, however which at the moment are value $10.3bn. The funds got here from prospects working on darkish internet markets, based on the DoJ.
Learn extra on crypto mixers: ChipMixer Crypto Laundromat Shut Down By German, US Authorities.
Throughout Harmon’s arrest, regulation enforcers seized a cryptocurrency storage machine containing funds generated by Helix, which have been topic to forfeiture, which means they have been confiscated by the state.
Nonetheless, investigators have been unable to get well the bitcoin saved on the machine attributable to built-in security measures.
Gary Harmon used his brother’s logins to recreate and entry the wallets saved on the machine, transferring over 712 bitcoin to his personal pockets. The digital foreign money was value $4.8m on the time however is value many instances extra in the present day.
Gary Harmon then laundered these funds although two on-line bitcoin mixers earlier than utilizing the digital foreign money to finance some massive purchases, based on the DoJ.
Following his arrest, he subsequently agreed to forfeit to the state the crypto he stole, together with over 647 bitcoin, 2 Ethereum and 17.4 million Dogecoin, which have a mixed worth in extra of $20m.
Larry Harmon pleaded responsible to cash laundering conspiracy in his case, in August 2021.
Cryptocurrency mixers are an more and more common means for criminals to launder the proceeds of their crimes.
The US authorities is scrambling to catch up. In Could 2022 it sanctioned some of the common mixers, Blender.io, which had been utilized by North Korean menace actors.
Nonetheless, there are quite a few alternate options for clued-up cyber-criminals to make use of.
