The U.S. government confiscated $400 million! Helix Dark Web Money Laundering Empire Destroys Full Record

The U.S. government confiscated more than $400 million in assets of the dark web mixing service Helix. Founder Larry Dean Harmon pleaded guilty in 2021 and was sentenced to 36 months in prison in 2024. Helix processed 354,468 Bitcoins from 2014 to 2017 and designed APIs to directly integrate the dark web market into the withdrawal system, which is favored by drug dealers.

A dark web money laundering empire of 35 bitcoins

! [U.S. government confiscated Helix money laundering funds] (https://img-cdn.gateio.im/webp-social/moments-87a9b3933a-3806215b92-8b7abd-e2c905.webp)

Last week, the government gained legal ownership of more than $4M in cryptocurrencies, real estate, and monetary assets related to the operations of Helix, a dark web mixing service platform. Helix serves as a mixing service platform that mixes cryptocurrencies from multiple users and transfers funds through a series of transactions designed to obscure the source, whereabouts, and owners of the funds. This service plays a pivotal role in the dark web economy, as it enables the proceeds of crime to evade law enforcement tracking.

The United States previously seized the assets of Larry Dean Harmon, the operator of Helix. The Helix company processed over $3M worth of cryptocurrency transactions between 2014 and 2017. According to court documents, Helix is one of the most popular mixing services on the dark web and is favored by online drug dealers trying to launder money. Helix handled at least about 354,468 Bitcoins on behalf of its customers – about $3M in dollar value at the time the transaction occurred.

This scale of transactions is extremely rare in the history of dark web money laundering. The 354,468 Bitcoins are worth approximately $319M at the current price of approximately $90,000, far exceeding the $400M valuation at the time of confiscation. This huge gap suggests that if Harmon had chosen to hold these Bitcoins instead of spending them back then, he could have become a billionaire. However, the dark web economy is characterized by rapid cash-outs, and the proceeds of crime are often immediately converted into fiat currency or purchased assets.

Most of these cryptocurrencies come from or flow to the dark web drug market. Investigators traced tens of millions of dollars in funds flowing to Helix from dark web marketplaces such as AlphaBay, Dream Market, Silk Road, and others. Harmon takes a percentage of the trading volume as commissions and fees for operating Helix, usually 2%-3% of the transaction volume. Based on $300 million in trading volume, Harmon may have earned between $600 and $900 in illicit gains.

Harmon pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit money laundering in August 2021 and was sentenced to 36 months in prison, three years of supervised release, confiscation of property, and confiscation of seized assets in November 2024. On January 21, District Court Judge Beryl A. Howell issued a final forfeiture order, declaring the assets owned by the government. This marks the end of the complete legal process, from criminal conviction to civil forfeiture.

The Helix API integrates criminal innovations from the dark web market

Harmon designed Helix and the dark web search engine Grams to connect or support all major dark web marketplaces at the time. Helix’s Application Programming Interface (API) enables dark web marketplaces to integrate Helix directly into their Bitcoin withdrawal system. Investigators traced tens of millions of dollars in funds flowing from dark web markets to Helix, an integration that allowed drug traders to mix coins through Helix immediately after completing a transaction without manual intervention.

This convenience of “one-click money laundering” makes Helix the infrastructure of the dark web ecosystem. When a buyer buys drugs on the dark web market, the paid Bitcoin will first enter the market’s custody address, and when the seller chooses to withdraw after the transaction is completed, the system will automatically call the Helix API to mix the coins, and the seller will eventually receive “clean” Bitcoin, which cannot be traced back to the original transaction. This seamless integration significantly lowers the threshold for money laundering, making it easy for tech novices to conceal the source of funds.

The operation process of the Helix mixing service

Step 1: The customer sends “dirty” bitcoins to a Helix address, marking the source (like a drug sale)

Step 2: Helix mixed that money with the money of hundreds of other customers

Step 3: The system divides the mixed Bitcoin into multiple small transactions and sends them to multiple addresses provided by the customer

Step 4: After multiple layers of jumps and time delays, the customer receives “clean” bitcoins, making on-chain analysis difficult to track

This technology may seem sophisticated, but with the advancement of blockchain analysis technology, coin mixers are no longer secure. Algorithms developed by companies such as Chainalysis and Elliptic can identify currency mixing behavior through transaction patterns and even restore the flow of funds before and after currency mixing. The Helix case is a successful application of these technologies.

FBI cross-border tracking cracks the fog of currency mixing

The announcement was made by Assistant Attorney General A. Tysen Duva, Assistant Attorney for the Criminal Division of the Department of Justice, U.S. Attorney Jeanine Ferris Pirro, District of Columbia District Attorney, Guy Ficco, Director of the IRS Criminal Investigation Division, and Brett Leatherman, Assistant Director of the FBI’s Cyber Division. The case was investigated by the IRS Criminal Investigation Bureau’s Cybercrime Division and the FBI’s Washington Field Office.

The Belize Attorney General’s Office and the Belize Police Department provided significant support for this investigation, which was coordinated by the U.S. Embassy in Belmopan. The investigation also collaborated with the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network. Some of Harmon’s assets are hidden in Belize, including real estate and offshore bank accounts, and this cross-border asset transfer is typical of money laundering. The U.S. law enforcement cooperation with Belize shows that even if assets are transferred to “tax havens”, there is no way to escape legal prosecution.

Trial attorney C. Alden Pelker of the Criminal Division’s Computer Crimes and Intellectual Property Division (CCIPS), Christopher B. Brown of the National Security Cyber Section of the Department of National Security, and Rick Blaylock Jr., Assistant U.S. Attorney for the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Columbia, handled the case. CCIPS collaborates with domestic and international law enforcement agencies to investigate and prosecute cybercrimes, often with assistance from the private sector.

Since 2020, CCIPS has successfully convicted more than 180 cybercriminals and obtained court judgments that recovered more than $3.5M in victims’ funds. This figure demonstrates the determination and ability of the United States to enforce cryptocurrency crimes. The successful cracking of the Helix case is a wake-up call for other coin mixer operators: anonymity is not absolute, and law enforcement agencies have mastered the technical means to track coin mixing transactions.

The Helix case is a significant warning to the crypto industry. Mixers or privacy protocols like Tornado Cash are themselves neutral tools and may be used by legitimate users for privacy reasons. However, when these tools are used for money laundering on a large scale, operators face criminal liability. The arrest of the Tornado Cash developer in 2023 and the indictment of the founder of Samourai Wallet in 2024 indicate tightening regulations on privacy tools in the United States. For crypto users, the legal risks of using these services are rising.