United States Department of Justice Fines Cryptocurrency Exchange BitMEX (HDR Global Trading) $100 Million & 2-Year Probation for Money Laundering & KYC Failures to Increase Revenue Violating Bank Secrecy Act, BitMEX & Founders (Benjamin Delo, Arthur Hayes & Samuel Reed) Fined $100 Million & Sentenced to Probation in 2021 in Related Cases
16th January 2025 | Hong Kong
The United States Department of Justice (DOJ) has fined cryptocurrency exchange BitMEX (HDR Global Trading) $100 million & sentenced to 2-year probation for money laundering & KYC failures to increase revenue, violating the Bank Secrecy Act. In 2021, BitMEX & founders (Benjamin Delo, Arthur Hayes & Samuel Reed) were fined $100 million & sentenced to probation in related cases. DOJ (15/1/25): “Matthew Podolsky, Attorney for the United States, Acting under Authority Conferred by 28 U.S.C. § 515, announced that HDR GLOBAL TRADING LTD., a/k/a “BITMEX”, was sentenced today to a fine of $100 million for violating the Bank Secrecy Act by willfully failing to establish, implement, and maintain an adequate anti-money laundering (“AML”) and know-your-customer (“KYC”) program. According to the allegations in the Information and other filings and statements made in court: Arthur Hayes, Benjamin Delo, and Samuel Reed founded BITMEX in or about 2014, and Gregory Dwyer became BITMEX’s first employee in 2015 and later its Head of Business Development. BITMEX, which has long serviced and solicited business from U.S. traders and operated through U.S. offices, was required to register with the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (“CFTC”) and to establish and maintain an adequate AML program. AML programs ensure that financial institutions, such as BITMEX, are not exploited for illicit purposes and serve to protect the integrity of the U.S. financial system and national security more broadly. BITMEX and its executives knew that because BITMEX served U.S. customers, it was required to implement an AML program that included a KYC component but chose to flaunt those requirements, requiring only that customers provide an email address to use BITMEX’s services. Indeed, senior executives each knew that customers residing in the U.S. continued to access BITMEX’s trading platform through at least in or about 2018, and that BITMEX policies nominally in place to prevent such trading were toothless or easily overridden to serve BITMEX’s bottom line goal of obtaining revenue through the U.S. market without regard to U.S. criminal laws. Corporate executives took affirmative steps purportedly designed to exempt BITMEX from the application of U.S. laws like AML and KYC requirements, despite knowing of BITMEX’s obligation to implement such programs by operating in the U.S. As part of BITMEX’s willful evasion of U.S. AML laws, the company lied to a bank about the purpose and nature of a subsidiary to allow BITMEX to pump millions of dollars through the U.S. financial system. Hayes, Delo, and Reed, BITMEX’s three founders and top executives, and Dwyer, another top executive, all previously entered guilty pleas for violating the Bank Secrecy Act and were sentenced in 2022. The corporation entered a guilty plea on July 10, 2024, and was sentenced today. In addition to the fine, BITMEX was sentenced to two years’ probation.”
“ United States Department of Justice Fines Cryptocurrency Exchange BitMEX (HDR Global Trading) $100 Million & 2-Year Probation for Money Laundering & KYC Failures to Increase Revenue Violating Bank Secrecy Act, BitMEX & Founders (Benjamin Delo, Arthur Hayes & Samuel Reed) Fined $100 Million & Sentenced to Probation in 2021 in Related Cases “
United States Department of Justice Fines Cryptocurrency Exchange BitMEX (HDR Global Trading) $100 Million & 2-Year Probation for Money Laundering & KYC Failures to Increase Revenue Violating Bank Secrecy Act, BitMEX & Founders (Benjamin Delo, Arthur Hayes & Samuel Reed) Fined $100 Million & Sentenced to Probation in 2021 in Related Cases
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