BitMEX former executive pleads guilty to violating the Bank Secrecy Act

Another top executive joins three co-founders of the crypto exchange BitMEX, pleading guilty in the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York. The court case under the headline "U.S. v. Hayes et al." goes on for two years, with BitMEX management being indicted for violating the U.S. Bank Secrecy Act. 

According to the Wall Street Journal, on Aug. 8, a one-time head of business development at BitMEX, Gregory Dwyer, admitted his guilt of violating the Bank Secrecy Act in court. As part of a plea deal, Dwyer would pay a $150,000 fine.

As Manhattan Attorney Damian Williams commented on this development:

“Today’s plea reflects that employees with management authority at cryptocurrency exchanges, no less than the founders of such exchanges, cannot willfully disregard their obligations under the Bank Secrecy Act.” 

All the founders that Williams mentions have already pleaded guilty earlier. Former CEO Arthur Hayes and one of the co-founders, Ben Delo, admitted their guilt on Feb. 24, 2022, while the third co-founder, Samuel Reed entered a plea two weeks later. 

Hayes was sentenced to two years probation, Delo received 30 months of probation, and Reed is facing up to five years in prison. Reed alone agreed to pay a $10 million fine, the same sum would be jointly paid by Hayes and Delo.

The charges against a trio of BitMEX co-founders and Dwyer were filed in 2020. Prosecutors accused the Seychelles-incorporated exchange of false withdrawal from the U.S. market, as it didn’t try hard enough to stop American users from signing up. In addition, BitMEX had been indicted for operating as a money-laundering platform, lacking the necessary anti-money-laundering (AML) and know-your-customer (KYC) protocols.