Factbox: Major cryptocurrency cases probed by US authorities
Charges brought by U.S. prosecutors against Sam Bankman-Fried, the founder of cryptocurrency exchange FTX, on Tuesday were among the highest-profile brought against a crypto player. It was the latest in a string of cases involving digital assets that U.S. regulators and prosecutors have been looking into.
Here is a summary of some of those civil and criminal cases, and their outcomes:
BITFINEX HACK
The U.S. Justice Department in February charged a husband-and-wife team on charges of conspiring to launder 119,754 bitcoin stolen after a hacker broke into digital currency exchange Bitfinex in 2016 and initiated more than 2,000 unauthorized transactions. The pair are in talks with prosecutors about a possible plea, court records show.
BITMEX EMPLOYEES
Employees of BitMEX, including the cryptocurrency exchange's founders, pleaded guilty this year to willfully failing to establish, implement and maintain programs to prevent money laundering. The firm's cofounders pleaded guilty in federal court in New York and each agreed to pay a $10 million criminal fine.
Another of the firm's employees also pleaded guilty, and agreed to a $150,000 fine.
Federal prosecutors originally brought the criminal charges in 2020.
In 2021, the exchange agreed to pay a civil penalty to settle separate charges from the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission and the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) unit of the U.S. Treasury Department.
A BitMEX spokesperson this week declined to comment on the charges against its former employees.
At the time the case was settled with the CFTC and FinCEN, the firm's chief executive officer emphasized its robust compliance and anti-money laundering capabilities.
BLOCKFI LENDING LLC
A subsidiary of crypto firm BlockFi
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