Ohio resident Larry Dean Harmon, 36, has been charged with laundering greater than $300 million in bitcoin for darknet market AlphaBay.The person f
Ohio resident Larry Dean Harmon, 36, has been charged with laundering greater than $300 million in bitcoin for darknet market AlphaBay.
The person from Tub Township, about 30 miles south of Cleveland, was arrested Feb. 6 for conspiracy to commit cash laundering, working an unlicensed cash transmitter enterprise and cash transmission with no license, in accordance with cleveland.com. He’s being prosecuted within the Northern District of Ohio.
Prosecutors stated Harmon performed a serious function in scrambling illicit cryptocurrency transactions for AlphaBay. He’s alleged to have run a mixing service referred to as “Helix” that labored along with AlphaBay – one of many leading so-called “darknet marketplaces” accessible solely by way of Tor browser. AlphaBay went offline in 2017.
Helix additionally labored with a handful of different marketplaces, the indictment stated. It started operations in July 2014 and ran by way of December 2017.
In whole, Helix is claimed to have scrambled not less than 354,468 bitcoin. The entire worth on the occasions of transaction is estimated to be over $311 million. That sum is value $3.7 billion at at present’s costs.
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