DOJ charges Ohio man with laundering over $300 million via bitcoin

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge

Federal authorities arrested an Ohio man for operating a cryptocurrency laundering service that moved some $300 million in bitcoin via a “tumbling” operation. Larry Dean Harmon of Akron ran an operation called Helix, which partnered with now-defunct underground marketplace AlphaBay, known for illegal activity including drug deals, according to the Department of Justice. The feds shut down AlphaBay in 2017.

According to an indictment, Harmon exchanged more than 350,000 bitcoin on Helix between 2014 and 2017. Customers could send bitcoin to recipients in a way that was designed to conceal the transaction and the owner of the bitcoin, authorities said.

“The brazenness with which Helix operated should be the most appalling aspect of this…

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via The Verge – All Posts

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