BitMEX’s Arthur Hayes And Benjamin Delo Plead Guilty: Report

BitMEX’s Arthur Hayes and Benjamin Delo, as founders of the exchange, pleaded guilty to violating the Bank Secrecy Act and the anti-money laundering provisions so now they are facing a prison sentence of up to five years as we can see more today in our latest cryptocurrency news.

The United States Department of Justice revealed that the founders of the BitMEX crypto exchange Arthur Hayes and Benjamin Delo pled guilty today of violating the Bank Secrecy Act. The authorities said that the trading venue was a money-laundering platform because of its willful failure to implement KYC and AML programs. The two executives who were accused of violating the BSA by operating the exchange admitted to failing to establish, implement and maintain an AML program. Under plea agreement terms, BitMEX’s Arthur Hayes and Benjamin Delo agreed to pay a $10 million criminal fine each and they could spend the next five years in prison. The US Attorney for the Southern District of New York, Damian Williams stated:

“Arthur Hayes and Benjamin Delo built a company designed to flout those obligations; they willfully failed to implement and maintain even basic anti-money laundering policies. They allowed BitMEX to operate as a platform in the shadows of the financial markets. Today’s guilty pleas reflect this Office’s continued commitment to the investigation and prosecution of money laundering in the cryptocurrency sector.”

The DOJ also outlined that both Hayes and Delo communicated with users from Iran which is an OFAC-sanctioned jurisdiction and allowed them to use the platform after their communication. The authorities quashed the claims of the executives that no Americans were using the platform and added that Delo even altered internal tracking information to reflect the customer’s country of residence as being other than the United States.

In October 2020, the DOJ alleged that Hayes and Delo indicated co-defendant Sam Reed tried to flout US AML regulations by setting up an off-shore shop and enabling the country’s users to transact. This was followed by Commodity Futures Trading Commission slamming the federal charges against BitMEX and the founders and after a 10monht long battle, BitMEX agreed to settle and will pay a fine worth $100 million to the CFTC. After the filings, Hayes stepped down as CEO and the role was taken up by Alexander Hoptner.