Bitcoin Thief Who Stole $5M of the Crypto Sentenced to 4 Years in Prison

• An Ohio man who stole more than 712 bitcoin was sentenced to four years in prison Thursday.
• Gary Harmon pled guilty in January to stealing the cryptocurrency.
• Law enforcement agents found a photo on Harmon’s phone of him in a bathtub full of cash.

An Ohio man who pled guilty in January to stealing more than 712 bitcoin from a computer held by the US government was sentenced to four years in prison Thursday.

Gary Harmon, 31, must also give up crypto holdings and other properties valued at over $20 million by today’s market prices, the US Justice Department said.

Harmon’s older brother Larry was charged in February 2020 with laundering over $300 million of crypto by operating the Darknet-based service Helix – and pled guilty 18 months later.

In April 2020, Gary Harmon used his brother’s credentials to steal over 712 bitcoin by recreating eight crypto wallets stored on a device held by the Internal Revenue Service.

The bitcoin was valued at $4.8 million at the time of the theft, according to the Justice Department, and would be worth just under $21 million at today’s prices.

Law enforcement agents found a photo of Harmon in a nightclub bathtub full of dollar bills on his phone after the bitcoin vanished.

Prosecutors also alleged that he used some of the bitcoin to buy a luxury condominium in Cleveland.

As part of his sentencing, Harmon will forfeit over 647 bitcoin, 2 ether, and more than 17 million dogecoin, according to the Justice Department.

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