CEO of Coin Ninja, a Bitcoin media website, Larry Harmon, has been accused of laundering money and running money transmitting business without a Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) license.

Harmon is also the creator of crypto wallet provider DropBit.

Currently, the federal charges are as regards his use of Bitcoin privacy tools.

1/ Re: Dropbit…



…CEO Larry Harmon has been arrested and is currently in Youngstown Ohio federal jail.



Charged with:

– Conspiracy to launder money instruments

– Operating an unlicensed money transmitting business



He faces up to 30 years. — Peter McCormack (@PeterMcCormack) February 13, 2020

The United States federal prosecutors are accusing Harmon of fraud.

A license of arrest that was filed earlier in February stated that Harmon laundered not less than 354,468 Bitcoins worth 311 million US Dollars as at the time of the deals.

He also allegedly permitted users of ‘Helix’, a privacy tool and ‘Grams’, a darknet search engine, to market on Alphabay, a popular dark market that was closed in 2017.

Helix enabled its users to combine the coins before use through a CoinJoin transaction.

Asides money laundering, this mixture of coins has been related to unlawful acts.

For all these alleged offenses, Larry Harmon is looking at a 30-year jail sentence.

Coin Ninja’s properties frozen

According to Gary Harmon who happens to be Larry Harmon’s brother, Coin Ninja’s properties have been frozen.

He added that the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) has also deducted $4,000 in Bitcoin from its Lightning Network node.

Reportedly, Journalist, Peter McCormack talked to Gary Harmon.

Peter McCormack noted that Larry Harmon has been rejected discharge on bail bond just because he was considered a flight hazard.

This is even after they have seized every of his possession.

The decision of the state attorney to detain Harmon is because the state thinks that he will not show in court if discharged on bail.

Reason being that he has important relations outside the U.S and is liable to a prolonged duration of imprisonment if sentenced.

Harmon’s crypto wallet provider, DropBit, has attained some fame among people who use Bitcoin.

This is especially because it permits the users to transmit BTC on-chain and over the Lightning Network using their Twitter handles or phone numbers.