Man Imprisoned For Stealing Bitcoins From IRS

Gary Harmon admitted using his brother's credentials to recreate eight Bitcoin wallets stored on a device in an Internal Revenue Service evidence locker in April 2020. Harmon was sentenced to four years in prison Thursday by US District Judge Beryl Howell in Washington, DC, where he pleaded guilty in January. Harmon will also forfeit cryptocurrencies and other property valued at more than $20 million, the US Justice Department said. Harmon stole 713 digital valued then at about $4.9 million. That Bitcoin was among 4,877 digital tokens seized from his brother, Larry. Larry was charged in February 2020 with laundering $311 million in crypto transactions on Darknet sites. After the Bitcoin vanished from the device held by the IRS, agents found a photo on Gary Harmon's cell phone showing him grinning in a tub full of cash at a nightclub. At the time of writing, 713 bitcoins are worth $21,019,168.

Image by Pawel Czerwinski on Unsplash

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