U.S. Government Takes Control of Over $400M in Assets From Helix Darknet Case

Helix Assets Officially Forfeited to the U.S. Government

(Source: U.S. Department of Justice)

Recently, the U.S. government secured a final court ruling to officially seize assets valued at over $400 million, including cryptocurrencies, real estate, and financial holdings. These assets were previously controlled by Helix, a darknet crypto mixing service designed to help users blend funds from multiple sources and obscure the origin and flow of money through multilayered transactions.

Helix Founder Pleaded Guilty and Is Serving Sentence

Larry Dean Harmon, Helix’s operator, pleaded guilty to conspiracy to launder money in August 2021. In November 2024, he was sentenced to 36 months in prison, three years of supervised release, and ordered to forfeit related illicit proceeds. On January 21, 2025, the court issued a formal forfeiture order, confirming all seized assets are now property of the U.S. government.

(Larry Harmon, Source: Coindesk)

Helix Was Once Among the Darknet’s Most Popular Money Laundering Tools

Court documents show that Helix was one of the darknet’s most widely used crypto mixers, frequently leveraged by online drug traffickers to launder illegal proceeds. From 2014 to 2017, Helix processed about 354,468 bitcoins—valued at roughly $300 million at the time—with substantial flows originating from or destined for darknet drug markets. Harmon collected a percentage as the platform’s service fee.

Deep Integration with Darknet Markets

Helix was not a standalone tool; it was deeply integrated with multiple darknet ecosystems. Harmon also developed the darknet search engine Grams and, via the Helix API, enabled major darknet marketplaces to embed Helix directly into their bitcoin withdrawal systems, making money laundering nearly automatic. Investigators ultimately traced tens of millions of dollars in funds flowing from darknet markets to Helix.

Cross-Agency and International Collaboration in Investigation

The case was led by the U.S. Department of Justice Criminal Division, the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), and the Internal Revenue Service Criminal Investigation (IRS-CI), with additional support from the DOJ Office of International Affairs and several district courts. The government and law enforcement of Belize also provided critical assistance through the U.S. Embassy in Belize, and the operation was closely coordinated with the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN).

CCIPS’s Long-Term Enforcement Achievements

The Computer Crime and Intellectual Property Section (CCIPS), which led this case, has secured convictions for more than 180 cybercriminals and helped recover over $350 million for victims since 2020, making it a central force in the U.S. fight against crypto and cybercrime.

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Summary

The Helix case marks not only the takedown of a single darknet money laundering platform, but also highlights the significant advances in global regulators’ ability to track crypto crime. As international cooperation and blockchain tracing technologies mature, even highly anonymized mixing services can no longer serve as safe havens for illicit funds. This development carries far-reaching implications for the compliance and growth of the entire crypto industry.