Security News > 2020 > February > Police bust alleged operator of Bitcoin mixing service Helix
The US Department of Justice announced on Thursday that Larry Harmon, 36, of Akron, Ohio, has been indicted on three counts of allegedly running a Bitcoin mixer service called Helix from 2014 to 2017.
Harmon's Helix bitcoin mixer allegedly moved at least 354,468 bitcoin on behalf of customers: a sum that was valued at over $300 million at the time of the transactions and which is now worth about USD $3.6 billion.
Helix had partnered with AlphaBay - one of the largest Dark Net markets before law enforcement seized it in July 2017 - to provide bitcoin laundering for AlphaBay's customers.
In November 2016, an FBI agent working undercover transferred 0.16 bitcoin from an AlphaBay bitcoin wallet to Helix.
A string of mixing services have eventually figured out that Bitcoin transactions aren't fully anonymous.