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The United States government has secured a final legal title to seized assets worth more than $400 million seized from the darknet cryptocurrency mixing operation, Helix.
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The crypto mixer processed approximately 350,000 bitcoin, worth $300 million at that time, between 2014 and 2017, mainly for helping drug markets on the dark web to launder money.
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Larry Harmon, the mastermind behind the mixer, has been sentenced to 36 months in prison for his part and his brother, Gary James Harmon, was sentenced to over four years for trying to steal from the seized assets.
The U.S. government recently dealt a final blow against Helix, a huge money laundering operation that was based on the dark web.
A court order officially permitted the government to claim ownership of over $400 million in assets, including seized cash, cryptocurrency, and property, belonging to Helix.
This asset forfeiture marks the end of a large-scale investigation involving many international law enforcement agencies.
A Mixer for Criminal Cash
Helix served as a crypto mixer (or tumbler, as some call it), a money laundering service that helped darknet criminals wash their dirty cryptocurrency proceeds. It worked by blending bitcoins from thousands of users. This process completely obscured where the money originally came from and who owned it.
This service wasn’t for everyday privacy. Court records show it was the go-to tool for online drug dealers. They used Helix to wash their illicit profits. Investigators found that tens of millions of dollars flowed from darknet markets directly into Helix’s system.
Over four years (2014–2017), Helix processed at least 354,468 BTC, valued at approximately $300 million at the time. The mastermind, Larry Dean Harmon, didn’t do this for free. He kept a cut of every transaction as his fee for running the service.
Harmon made Helix incredibly user-friendly for criminals. He built an Application Programming Interface (API). This lets major darknet markets integrate Helix directly into their own bitcoin withdrawal systems. Harmon also created Grams, a darknet search engine designed to connect with all the major illegal markets at the time.
Justice Served, Then Almost Stolen
But, like everything, Harmon’s job at Helix eventually came to an end. The authorities arrested him, and he pleaded guilty in August 2021 to money laundering charges. In November 2024, the court later gave him a prison sentence of 36 months, with three years of supervised release. Additionally, the court ordered him to forfeit all the properties seized from his laundering operation.
However, in a bizarre twist, Harmon’s own brother, Gary James Harmon, tried to pull a fast one on the government. After authorities seized the assets, as detailed in our report on the initial $400M seizure, Gary tried to steal about $4.8 million worth of the confiscated bitcoin. He didn’t succeed, though, leading to his arrest, after which he got a 4-year sentence for his actions.
The last of the proceedings concluded last week, on January 21, after US District Judge Beryl A. Howell signed the final forfeiture order. This action legally transferred ownership of all $400 million in assets from Helix to the United States government.
A Global Crackdown on Cybercrime
This case is a textbook example of modern, coordinated law enforcement. In addition to the FBI and IRS, there were multiple law enforcement agencies working together to accomplish these results. Some of these agencies included the FBI’s Washington Field Office, the IRS Criminal Investigation (IRS-CI) Cyber Crimes Unit, law enforcement from other countries, including the Belize Police Department and the Attorney General’s Ministry of Belize, who assisted through the United States Embassy in Belize.
This case brings the Department of Justice’s aim to focus. They are prioritizing taking the profit out of cybercrime. The DOJ’s Computer Crime & Intellectual Property Section (CCIPS) has obtained numerous court orders to direct the forfeiture of over $350 million that will ultimately be returned to the respective victims of the offences.
These aggressive efforts to bring cybercriminals to justice have led to the conviction of more than 180 individuals for related offenses.
This final forfeiture of the Helix assets sends a powerful message law enforcement is willing to go to any length to unravel dark web operations, regardless of how sophisticated they may be.
The message is clear no hiding place for bad actors, not even on the darknet. Criminals may think digital money trails are invisible, but investigators can follow them wherever they lead, no matter how well they are hidden.
