BitMEX Pleads Guilty to Bank Secrecy Act Offense
Bitcoin exchange and derivative trading platform BitMEX pled guilty to violating the Bank Secrecy Act by "willfully failing to establish, implement, and maintain an adequate anti-money laundering (AML) program."
"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.
- "BitMEX opened itself up as a vehicle for large-scale money laundering and sanctions evasion schemes, posing a serious threat to the integrity of the financial system. 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," he added.
"The BSA charge is old news - this is the same charge brought in 2020 against our founders relating to BitMEX’s operations up to September 2020. Our founders accepted this and were sentenced back in 2022. BitMEX has long since fully remediated its operations, and there is nothing new in this charge," BitMEX said in a blog post.
- "We have accepted the BSA charge, will seek an expedited sentencing hearing, and argue that no further fine should be imposed, given the substantial amounts already paid by our founders under the BSA charges brought against them, and under our no admission/no denial settlements with the CFTC and FinCEN in 2021," the company added.
Press Release / Archive
BitMEX Response / Archive
The Block Article / Archive
TFTC Article / Archive
