A court judge has ruled that the government can claim ownership of the seized funds
The US Department of Justice (DOJ) has completed a major forfeiture tied to one of the earliest Bitcoin mixing services used on the darknet. More than $400 million in cryptocurrency and related assets connected to Helix have now been formally transferred to government control.
Helix was operated by Larry Harmon and ran between 2014 and 2017. The service was built to hide the origin and destination of Bitcoin transactions, making it attractive to users tied to darknet marketplaces, including drug vendors seeking to clean illicit funds.
A federal court in Washington, D.C. issued the final forfeiture order on Janunary 21. That ruling granted the government full legal ownership of the seized crypto holdings, along with real estate and financial assets linked to Helix’s operations.
Prosecutors said Helix processed more than 354,000 Bitcoin during its lifetime. At the time, those transactions were valued at roughly $300 million, though the assets later grew significantly in value as Bitcoin prices rose.
Investigators also connected Harmon to Grams, a search engine that helped users find darknet markets. Authorities said Helix’s software tools allowed marketplaces to integrate the mixer directly, making large-scale laundering easier and harder to trace.
Harmon was arrested in early 2020 and later admitted to conspiracy to commit money laundering. He received a three-year prison sentence in November 2024 after cooperating with federal investigators on other crypto-related cases.
The forfeiture order was part of Harmon’s sentencing but required additional court steps to finalize. Last week’s decision closed that process, marking the end of a long-running enforcement effort.
