Crypto Exchange BitMEX Pleads Guilty to AML Breaches Under Bank Secrecy Act
Crypto exchange and derivative trading platform BitMEX pled guilty to violating the Bank Secrecy Act on Wednesday.
The US Attorney for the Southern District of New York said that BitMEX willfully failed to establish, implement, and maintain an adequate anti-money laundering program.
“BitMEX’s founders and long-time employee admitted in federal court in 2022, the company, one of the leading cryptocurrency derivatives platforms in the world from 2015 to 2020, operated in the United States without any meaningful anti-money laundering program, as required by federal law,” US attorney Damian Williams said.
“As a result, BitMEX opened itself up as a vehicle for large-scale money laundering and sanctions evasion schemes, posing a serious threat to the integrity of the financial system.”
A BitMEX spokesperson told Cryptonews that the charge is old news. “This is the same charge brought in 2020 against our founders relating to BitMEX’s operations up to September 2020. Our founders accepted this and were sentenced back in 2022. BitMEX has long since fully remediated its operations, and there is nothing new in this charge,” they added.
Further, the exchange said it has accepted the charge. It plans to seek an expedited sentencing hearing and argue that no further fine should be imposed.
BitMEX has faced significant legal issues in the US since 2022. In late 2022, prosecutors sought a 12-month probation sentence for Greg Dwyer, the former head of business development, for violating the US Bank Secrecy Act.
Earlier that year, Arthur Hayes, a BitMEX founder, received a six-month home detention sentence after his guilty plea. Another founder, Ben Delo, was sentenced to 30 months of probation.
As part of the plea deal, each co-founder was
Read more on cryptonews.com
