Deniz 
A statement from the U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York indicates that BitMEX voluntarily failed to establish, implement, and maintain an adequate anti-money laundering program. On Wednesday, BitMEX entered a guilty plea to violating the Bank Secresy Act.
“As bitMEX’s founders and long-time employee admitted in federal court in 2022, the company, one of the leading cryptocurrency derivatives platforms in the world from 2015 to 2020, operated in the United States without any meaningful anti-money laundering program (AML), as required by federal law,” Damian Williams, U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York, said in the statement.
Prosecutors requested a court in late 2022 to sentence Greg Dwyer, the former head of business development for the company, to 12 months of probation for breaking the U.S. Bank Secrecy Act. One of BitMEX’s founders, Arthur Hayes, was sentenced to six months of home detention earlier that year after earlier pleading guilty to also breaking the Bank Secrecy Act.
“BitMEX poses a major threat to the integrity of the financial system since it opened itself as a vehicle for massive money laundering and sanctions evasion schemes,” Williams said in Wednesday’s statement. “Today’s guilty plea indicates again the need for cryptocurrency companies to comply with U.S. law if they take advantage of the U.S. market.”
Originally started in 2014, BitMEX “long serviced and solicited business from U.S. traders and also operated through U.S. offices. It was required to register with the Commodity Futures Trading Commission and establish and maintain an adequate AML program,” the statement added.
BitMEX admitted one count, “of violating the Bank Secrecy Act, which carries a maximum sentence of five years in prison and a fine.”
The first or biggest exchange sanctioned for disregarding U.S. rules was BitMEX. The former head of Binance, the biggest bitcoin exchange worldwide, Changpeng Zhao, yesterday reported to a low-security California facility to start a four-month federal jail sentence. Zhao admitted in late 2023 to not following suitable anti-money laundering policies at Binance.
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