Topic: Bitcoin thief who stole $5M worth of crypto sentenced to 4 years in prison - page 2. (Read 245 times)

That's how you get all the eyes on you if you live lavishly suddenly and people will actually notice it with how you're spending that money.

I am glad to see this, as bitcoin related crimes have been a bit hard to prosecute.  This is something that we are dealing with quite a bit in the collectibles section.  We've had quite a few "rug pulls" where coin/wallet makers have ended up keeping private keys for these fancy paper wallets that we collect, and trying to go after them has been quite the task.  Hopefully more and more arrest like this will help set the framework for legal litigation moving forward.

This is the latest sentencing of a Bitcoin thief coming from the US. After he successfully recreated the wallet containing his brother's Bitcoin proceeds from Helix and laundered it through two online mixers service, I believe he wouldn't have been caught If not for his lifestyle and expensive property purchases that attracted the attention of government agencies.

First of all your topic tittle and that of a media outlet seems the same both seems more like clickbait because the phrase “bitcoin thief” is wrong because there are two other cryptocurrencies you mentioned in the article but the tittle only portrays bitcoin.

The other thing is how the scammer gets his on hands on the bitcoin if at all it was save on cold storage it might be hard but just like they warn on the forum.

An Ohio man was sentenced today to four years and three months in prison for stealing over 712 bitcoin that were the proceeds of the darknet bitcoin mixer Helix and subject to forfeiture in a then-pending criminal case.

According to court documents, Gary James Harmon, 31, of Cleveland, perpetrated a scheme to steal cryptocurrency that was the subject of pending criminal forfeiture proceedings in the case of Larry Dean Harmon, Gary Harmon’s brother. In February 2020, Larry Harmon was arrested for his operation of Helix, a darknet-based cryptocurrency money laundering service, known as a “mixer” or “tumbler.” Helix laundered over 350,000 bitcoin – valued at over $300 million at the time of the transactions – on behalf of customers, with the largest volume coming from darknet markets. Law enforcement seized various assets, including a cryptocurrency storage device containing Larry Harmon’s illegal proceeds generated through the operation of Helix, which were subject to forfeiture in the criminal case. However, law enforcement was initially unable to recover bitcoin stored on the device due to the device’s additional security features.

Knowing that the government was seeking to recover the bitcoin stored on the seized device for forfeiture in Larry Harmon’s criminal case, Gary Harmon used his brother’s credentials to recreate the bitcoin wallets stored on the device and covertly transfer more than 712 bitcoin, valued at approximately $4.8 million at the time, to his own wallets – stealing those funds and obstructing the pending criminal forfeiture proceeding. Gary Harmon further laundered the proceeds through two online bitcoin mixer services before using the laundered bitcoins to finance large purchases and other expenditures.

Gary Harmon agreed to the forfeiture of cryptocurrencies and other properties derived from the fraudulently taken proceeds, including more than 647.41 Bitcoin (BTC), 2.14 Ethereum (ETH), and 17,404,400.64 Dogecoin (DOGE). Due to the increase in market prices, the total value of these forfeitable properties exceeds $20 million.