After pleading guilty to stealing millions of dollars in Bitcoin (BTC) from the Internal Revenue Service, an Ohio man faces decades in prison (IRS).
According to a new press release from the US Department of Justice (DOJ), 31-year-old Gary Harmon of Cleveland, Ohio faces 40 years in prison for stealing digital assets from his brother that were initially seized by authorities.
Gary Harmon pleaded guilty to wire fraud and obstruction of justice after stealing 712 Bitcoin valued at approximately $12 million at the time of writing. Authorities had previously seized the BTC from Harmon’s brother, who pled guilty in August 2021 to a money laundering conspiracy.
Harmon admitted to using his brother’s credentials to access and steal the Bitcoin, implying he knew the seed phrases or private keys required to remotely access the BTC, according to the DOJ.
Larry Harmon, Gary Harmon’s brother, was arrested in February 2020 for laundering millions of dollars in virtual assets through Helix, a darknet money laundering business. A crypto storage device was seized at the time of his arrest, but officials were unable to breach its security and access the Bitcoin stored on it. According to Bloomberg, the IRS was in possession of the crypto storage device.
According to the press release, Gary Harmon transferred the Bitcoin to his personal wallet before washing it with coin mixers.
Gary Harmon pleaded guilty to his charges on January 6th and agreed to forfeit the stolen Bitcoin.
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