FinCEN Fined Helix Operator

The Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) under the US Treasury Department has fined bitcoin mixer creator and operator Larry Dean HARMON $ 60 mln for violating the US Bank Secrecy Act. For the first time, the regulator fined the service of anonymizing crypto transactions.

In February, the US Department of Justice sued Harmon for using the Helix service, which allegedly served participants of the darknet market. According to documents released by FinCEN on October 19, at least 356,000 bitcoin transactions were identified through Helix from June 2014 through December 2017.

In the course of the FinCEN investigation, it was found that Harmon deliberately violated the requirements of the Bank Secrecy Act, and also did not implement and support the anti-money laundering program. The trial in the Harmon case continues. In addition to a fine, he faces up to 30 years in prison.

Image courtesy of WSJ