- Now he will spend 4 years behind bars
- And also give away all the cryptocurrency
Gary James Harmon of Ohio received 4 years in prison for stealing 712 BTC belonging to his brother Larry Harmon. These assets were subject to confiscation from the Ministry of Justice.
In February 2020, Gary Harmon’s brother was arrested on charges of money laundering through the dark web. He was charged with illegal transactions worth more than $300 million. At the time of his arrest, the cops confiscated various assets from him, including a cold wallet on which bitcoins were stored. But they were unable to access cryptocurrencies.
Knowing that the government was looking for the key and wanted to withdraw bitcoins, the detainee’s brother Harry Harmon did everything to prevent this from happening. He used Larry Harmon’s credentials to recreate copies of the BTC address. He then secretly transferred the bitcoins to his own wallets. He spent part of the stolen funds on large purchases and personal expenses. But the trick failed, and the police arrested the man.
In early January, Harry Harmon pleaded guilty to stealing cryptocurrencies. He also agreed to have the Treasury confiscate the stolen goods. At that time, the man’s accounts had 647.41 BTC, 2.14 ETH and 17,404,400.64 DOGE.
Recently, the court sentenced Harmon to 4 years and 3 months in prison. This is a lenient sentence, because in the country, fraud is punishable by up to 20 years in prison.
The United States recently seized bitcoins from Satanists. They carried out transactions to exchange crypto for fiat and did not report to the tax office.