On Monday, the United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York announced that a high-ranking executive at BitMEX has pleaded ‘guilty’ under US ‘Anti-money Laundering’ Law.
Gregory Dwyer, who was formerly BitMEX’s head of business development, pleaded guilty to breaching the Bank Secrecy Act for not establishing, implementing, and maintaining an anti-money laundering (AML) program at BitMEX.
U.S. Attorney Damian Williams said that with the plea, the Office has received criminal judgments against all three founders, and also a high-ranking employee at BitMEX, for intentional breaching of anti-money laundering laws.
Williams further stated, “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.”
The Indictment, public court filings, and statements made in court read that from at least September 2015 till September 2020, Dwyer has worked with BitMEX’s founders Arthur Hayes, Benjamin Delo, and Samuel Reed.
The filing also read that BitMex has failed to establish and maintain an AML program, “including a program for verifying the identity of BitMEX’s customers”.
The statements further cited the willful failure to implement AML and KYC programs, and thus called BitMEX, a “money laundering platform”.
As per the plea’s agreement terms, Dwyer agreed to pay a $150,000 criminal fine. Also, the maximum penalty for his crime is ‘five years’ in prison.
Recently, the firm’s three co-founders, Arthur Hayes, Benjamin Delo and Samuel Reed pleaded guilty to violating the U.S. Bank Secrecy Act and were accused of not implementing compliance programs for identifying customers.
