Author: Turner Wright, CoinTelegraph; Compiler: Tao Zhu, Golden Finance
U.S. Department of Justice officials announced that cryptocurrency exchange BitMEX admitted to violating the Bank Secrecy Act (BSA) and operating without "any meaningful" anti-money laundering (AML) program.
In a July 10 notice, U.S. Attorney Damian Williams stated that BitMEX "willfully failed to establish, implement, and maintain" an adequate anti-money laundering program between 2015 and 2020.The charges appear to stem from testimony during a 2022 criminal complaint against some of the exchange's founders and employees.
“BitMEX became a vehicle for a massive money laundering and sanctions evasion scheme, posing a serious threat to the integrity of the financial system,” Williams said. "Today's guilty plea demonstrates once again that if cryptocurrency companies take advantage of the U.S. market, they need to comply with U.S. law."
Source: U.S. Department of Justice
According to U.S. prosecutors, BitMEX did not implement an anti-money laundering program that met the "know your customer" standard, but instead asked users to provide email addresses, thereby "flouting" anti-money laundering requirements. Founders Arthur Hayes, Benjamin Delo and Samuel Reed knew that the requirement affected U.S. users, in violation of federal law.
BitMEX, or HDR Global Trading Limited, is incorporated in the Republic of Seychelles. The exchange's responsible parties could face up to five years in prison and fines.
In 2022, a court ordered Arthur Hayes, Benjamin Delo and Samuel Reed to pay a combined $30 million in civil penalties in a case brought by the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission. The three were each sentenced to probation in 2022 for pleading guilty to violating the BSA's anti-money laundering requirements.
U.S. courts are also preparing to sentence individuals associated with defunct cryptocurrency exchanges FTX and Alameda Research after they pleaded guilty. Starting in October, Southern District of New York Judge Lewis Kaplan will consider whether to send FTX co-founder Gary Wang and former engineering director Nishad Singh to prison. Former CEO Sam Bankman-Fried was sentenced to 25 years in prison following trial and conviction.
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CointelegraphArthur Hayes and Benjamin Delo will each pay fines for violating the Bank Secrecy Act and operating what the Justice Department calls a "money laundering platform."
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