Man accused of team threat enters plea

A California man pleaded not guilty on Friday to a charge of threatening a shoot- ing at Ohio State University and vowing to hurt players on the football team.

An indictment unsealed late last year in federal court in Columbus accuses Dan- iel R ippy of makin g t he “electronic communication” threat from Califor- nia during the game between Ohio State and the University of Michigan in 2018. The game was played in Columbus that year, and Ohio State won 62-39.

Rippy threatened a shooting at the school and said: “I’m seriously going to hurt the students and all of the players from the football team,” according to the Sept. 26 indictment.

Rippy entered the not guilty plea before Judge Algenon Marbley, who ordered him to remain in detention ahead of his April 13 trial.

Rippy was arrested Dec. 28 in Livermore, California, released on bond, but then failed to report to the court’s Pretrial Services division as required, records show. He was re-arrested last month in California, and a magistrate judge ordered him handed over to U.S. marshals and sent to Ohio. million in cryptocurrency used by customers to make illegal purchases from the darknet marketplace.

Larry Dean Harmon, 36, of Bath Township, was arrested Tuesday after the unsealing of an indictment handed up by a Washington, D.C., grand jury in December. FBI and IRS agents also searched Harmon’s home and offices in the Akron area and a prop- erty he leased in the Central American country of Belize on Tuesday.

Harmon operated a “mixing” or “tumbling” service from 2014 through 2017 that would collect a fee from darknet customers seeking to hide the source or ownership of cryptocurrency from the prying eyes of law enforce- ment, prosecutors said.

Harmon advertised those services through his company called Helix and oper- ated a darknet search engine called Grams, prosecutors said. He is accused of partnering with the underground marketplace AlphaBay seized by authorities in 2017.