The U.S. Attorney’s Office in Manhattan announced on Thursday that the founders of cryptocurrency exchange BitMEX pled guilty to violating the bank secrecy act by failing to develop an anti-money laundering program.
According to the US Attorney’s office, Arthur Hayes and Benjamin Delo, who launched BitMEX in 2014, each agreed to pay a $10 million fine as part of their plea agreement.
“They allowed BitMEX to operate as a platform in the shadows of the financial markets,” Damian Williams, the U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York, said in a statement, adding that his office was committed to continuing “the investigation and prosecution of money laundering in the cryptocurrency sector.”
A spokesperson for Delo said on Thursday that he regrets the platform’s lack of an adequate customer identification program.
“This firmly draws a line under the matter. Ben looks forward to focusing his time and energy on his philanthropy,” the spokesperson said.
A spokesperson for Hayes said that he “accepts responsibility for his actions and looks forward to the time when he can put this matter behind him.”
In October of 2020, they were accused of failing to execute a “know your customer” requirement mandated by federal law, along with co-founder Samuel Reed and employee Gregory Dwyer. At the time, prosecutors said BitMEX had become a “vehicle” for money laundering and sanctions violations.
Both Reed and Dwyer have entered not guilty pleas.
Reed’s attorneys did not respond to a request for comment on Thursday. Dwyer’s counsel declined to comment.
BitMEX agreed to pay up to $100 million to settle separate charges of unlawfully taking customer cash to trade bitcoin when it was not registered to do so and failing to complete consumer due diligence in August of 2021.
