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Three of the co-founders of the cryptocurrency exchange BitMEX have already pleaded guilty in the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York. Now, a fourth co-founder of BitMEX has also pleaded guilty. The "U.S. v. Hayes et al." court case has been going on for two years. The people in charge of BitMEX have been charged with breaking the U.S. Bank Secrecy Act.
The Wall Street Journal says that Gregory Dwyer, who used to be the head of business development at BitMEX, admitted in court on August 8 that he had broken the Bank Secrecy Act. Dwyer would pay a $150,000 fine as part of a deal to plead guilty.
Damian Williams, a lawyer in Manhattan, said this about what happened:
"Today's petition shows that employees with management power at cryptocurrency exchanges, just like the exchanges' founders, can't ignore their responsibilities under the Bank Secrecy Act on purpose."
All of the founders that Williams talks about have already admitted guilt. Arthur Hayes, the former CEO, and Ben Delo, one of the co-founders, both admitted guilt on February 24, 2022. Two weeks later, Samuel Reed, the third co-founder, also admitted guilt.
Hayes got two years of probation, Delo got 30 months of probation, and Reed could go to prison for up to five years. Reed agreed to pay a $10 million fine by himself, while Hayes and Delo would pay the same amount together.
In 2020, charges were brought against three of BitMEX's co-founders and Dwyer. Prosecutors said that the exchange, which was based in Seychelles, lied about leaving the U.S. market because it didn't try hard enough to stop Americans from signing up. BitMEX was also accused of being a money-laundering platform that didn't have the anti-money-laundering (AML) and know-your-customer (KYC) protocols it needed.
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