Last week, the government obtained legal title over more than $400 million in seized cryptocurrencies, real estate, and monetary assets tied to the operation of the darknet mixing service Helix. As a mixing service, Helix blended cryptocurrency from multiple users and routed the funds through a series of transactions designed to obscure the funds’ sources, destinations, and owners. The United States previously seized the assets from Larry Dean Harmon, the operator of Helix, who processed transactions involving over $300 million worth of cryptocurrency from 2014 to 2017.
Harmon pleaded guilty in August 2021 to conspiracy to commit money laundering and was sentenced in November 2024 to 36 months’ in prison, three years of supervised release, a forfeiture money judgment, and forfeiture of seized property. On Jan. 21, Judge Beryl A. Howell of the District Court for the District of Columbia entered a final order of forfeiture, declaring the assets forfeited to the government. According to court documents, Helix was one of the most popular mixing services on the darknet and was highly sought after by online drug dealers seeking to launder their illicit profits.
Helix processed at least approximately 354,468 bitcoin—the equivalent of approximately $300 million in U.S. dollars at the time of the transactions—on behalf of its customers. Much of those cryptocurrency was coming from or going to darknet drug markets. Harmon retained a percentage of these transactions as his commissions and fees for operating Helix. Helix’s Application Program Interface (API) enabled darknet markets to integrate Helix directly into their bitcoin withdrawal systems.
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