The U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) announced yesterday (10) that cryptocurrency exchange BitMEX admitted to violating the Bank Secrecy Act (BSA) and failed to implement strong and effective user identity verification (KYC) and anti-money laundering (AML). measures, the relevant responsible persons may face up to five years in prison and fines.
BitMEX admits to violating Bank Secrecy Act
The announcement reads that BitMEX has admitted that the company operated without establishing any "meaningful" anti-money laundering measures and violated the Bank Secrecy Act.
The DOJ accused BitMEX's three co-founders Arthur Hayes, Samuel Reed, and Benjamin Delo, as well as its first employee Gregory Dwyer, of deliberately failing to implement proper KYC and AML measures on the exchange from September 2015 to September 2020. :
The company and its executives knew that they were providing services to U.S. users and were therefore required to implement KYC and AML programs, but they chose to ignore these regulations and simply required users to provide their emails to use BitMEX’s services.
The DOJ emphasized that BitMEX instead acted illegally in an attempt to exclude the company from the application of U.S. law:
As part of BitMEX’s deliberate evasion of U.S. anti-money laundering laws, the company even lied to banks about the purpose and nature of its subsidiary Shine Effort Inc. Limited in order to move millions of dollars through the U.S. financial system.
He added, “In fact, the shell company is controlled by Delo.”
However, as early as 2020, the U.S. Commodity Futures Commission (CFTC) had accused BitMEX and its related executives of similar charges. They all pleaded guilty at the time, and finally sentenced the three co-founders to probation in 2022 and paid approximately $30 million fine.
Damian Williams: BitMEX becomes a large-scale money laundering tool
Prosecutor Damian Williams stated that BitMEX "knowingly" failed to establish, implement and implement an effective anti-money laundering program:
Although BitMEX was one of the world's leading cryptocurrency derivatives platforms from 2015 to 2020, as BitMEX's founder and relevant executives admitted in 2022, the company did not implement any meaningful implementation during its operations in the United States. Anti-Money Laundering Measures.
It added, “BitMEX has therefore become a tool for large-scale money laundering and sanctions evasion, and poses a serious threat to the integrity of the financial system.”
In this regard, the person in charge of BitMEX and its entity HDR Global Trading may face up to five years in prison and a fine.
Other lawsuits still ongoing
Currently, lawsuits against people related to the collapsed exchange FTX and Alameda Research are still pending in the U.S. court, including FTX co-founder Gary Wang and former engineering director Nishad Sing, while former CEO SBF is serving a sentence.
On the other hand, the U.S. court also approved most of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission’s (SEC) charges against Binance.US, including BNB’s ICO involving securities sales and failure to register as a trading broker in accordance with the law; and former CEO CZ was also convicted of DOJ’s On multiple charges, he reported to prison early last month to begin a four-month sentence.
(Binance kicks the iron? The judge approves most of the SEC’s charges. Only BUSD and coin-earning services are not investment contracts)
Previously, Hayes had also supported Binance, which was wrongly targeted by US regulations, by listing well-known financial scandals in the past. Now it has also been hit hard by regulations.
(The founder of BitMEX criticized the injustice of justice in the United States, detailed famous financial scandals and supported Binance and CZ)
This article U.S. Department of Justice: BitMEX admitted to violating the Bank Secrecy Act and failing to implement KYC and anti-money laundering measures first appeared on Chain News ABMedia.
