BitMEX, a cryptocurrency exchange and derivatives trading platform, pleaded guilty Wednesday to violating the Bank Secrecy Act and willfully failing to establish, implement, and maintain an adequate anti-money laundering program, according to a statement from the U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York.
“As BitMEX’s founders and longtime employees admitted in federal court in 2022, from 2015 through 2020, the company that was one of the world’s leading cryptocurrency derivatives platforms operated in the United States without a meaningful anti-money laundering (AML) program as required by federal law,” said Damien Williams, U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York. that much name.
BitMEX has been facing serious legal troubles in the United States since at least 2022.
In late 2022, prosecutors asked the court to sentence Greg Dwyer, the company’s former head of business development, to 12 months of probation for violating the U.S. Bank Secrecy Act. Earlier that year, Arthur Hayes, one of the founders of BitMEX, was sentenced to: He was sentenced to six months of house arrest after pleading guilty to violating the Bank Secrecy Act.
“BitMEX poses a serious threat to the integrity of the financial system by opening itself up as a vehicle for a large-scale money laundering and sanctions evasion scheme,” Williams said in a statement Wednesday. “Today’s guilty plea underscores the need for cryptocurrency companies to comply with U.S. law when utilizing U.S. markets.”
Founded in 2014, BitMEX “has a long history of conducting business with and soliciting business from U.S. traders, operating through U.S. offices, registering with the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, and establishing and maintaining an appropriate AML program,” the statement reads.
BitMEX pleaded guilty to “violating the Bank Secrecy Act, which carries a maximum penalty of five years in prison and a fine.”
BitMEX was not the first or largest exchange to be penalized for failing to comply with U.S. regulations. Changpeng Zhao, former CEO of Binance, the world’s largest cryptocurrency exchange, recently began a four-month federal prison sentence for reporting to a low-security facility in California. Zhao pleaded guilty in late 2023 to failing to implement adequate anti-money laundering protocols at Binance.
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