The US Department of Treasury’s Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) has issued its first penalty to a cryptocurrency mixing service. Both Helix and Coin Ninja have been fined $60 million by the US Treasury. The FinCEN fine was issued to Larry Deam Harmon, the founder of Coin Ninja and Helix cryptocurrency mixers. The fines were issued after Coin Ninja and Helix violated the Bank Secrecy Act (BSA) while operating their services as unregistered money services businesses (MSB).
FinCEN said that the investigation “revealed that Mr. Harmon willfully violated the BSA’s registration, program, and reporting requirements by failing to register as a MSB, failing to implement and maintain an effective anti-money laundering program, and failing to report suspicious activities.” This was after Harmon advertised his services as an anonymous and secure way to “pay for things like drugs, guns, and child pornography.”
