This Person Steals 712 Bitcoins That Have Been Confiscated By Obligatory Parties, Is Threatened With A Sentence Of 40 Years In Prison

Bitcoin theft in the United States. (Photo; Doc. Crypto Il)

JAKARTA Bitcoin (BTC) is the largest cryptocurrency by market cap. Currently, BTC is trading at IDR 267 million per coin, according to CoinMarketCap data. Many parties are interested in owning Bitcoin, including by committing theft.

A man in Ohio, United States, was reported to have stolen Bitcoin from the authorities, Internal Service Revenue (IRS). Gary Harmon, a 31-year-old man, was forced to face the threat of 40 years in prison for stealing millions of US dollars worth of Bitcoin from the IRS.

For this action, Gary Harmon pleaded guilty and charged with wire fraud and obstructed justice after stealing 712 Bitcoins worth about $12 million at the time of writing. Previously, authorities had confiscated BTC from Harmon's brother, who pleaded guilty to a money laundering conspiracy in August 2021.

According to the DOJ, Harmon admitted to using his brother's credentials to access and steal Bitcoin, implying that he was aware of the seeded phrase or personal key needed to remotely access BTC, DailyHodl reported.

In February 2020, Larry Harmon, Gary Harmon's brother, was arrested for laundering millions of dollars worth of virtual assets through Helix, a money laundering business on the darkweb dark site. At the time of his arrest, crypto storage equipment was confiscated, although officers were unable to break its security to access the Bitcoin in it.

Bloomberg reports that the crypto storage device is held by the IRS. According to a press release, Gary Harmon transferred Bitcoin to his own wallet and then sent BTC to a cryptocurrency mixing platform or coin mixer. On January 6, Gary Harmon pleaded guilty to his allegations and agreed to return the stolen Bitcoin.