Want to launder money effectively? Use the old banking system. The fining of Helix is about a period where exchanges weren't regulated yet and when there was no obligation to proof your identity before you started using them. Now there is and guess what? It's easier to track money with crypto than with fiat money, even better: thanks to years of creating laws in the advantage of launderers (and bankers) and thanks to big differences in laws per country, its' quite hard to track fiat currencies.
But then again: who would use an exchange to obtain and use crypto? Not the criminals, since they know that private (and hardware) wallets are way safer to do their business. And so do a lot of politicians and the people they make the rules avoidable for know.
It's not criminals they're after, it's the little man/woman, who just wants to use crypto to save/invest, because the "fiat bankers" are robbing them to the bone with "costs" and other tricks to undress their clientele to their skin, just to make more cash for themselves and their "shareholders" (who, in their turn, don't have to pay any taxes at all -> tax avoidance, anyone?).