BitMEX was hit with a $100 million fine Wednesday by Manhattan federal judge Judge John G. Koeltl—the latest verdict against the cryptocurrency exchange in the years-long saga over money-laundering violations in the United States.
The exchange's attorneys had argued that an earlier $110 million fine and previous guilty pleas were sufficient punishment for the violations that took place between 2015 and 2020, but Koeltl disagreed. Law360 The first to report the news was First Report.
In 2022, founders Arthur Hayes & Benjamin Delo pleaded guilty to the same charges and agreed to pay a criminal fine of $10 million each. BitMEX said in a Wednesday statement that the fine is less than the amount sought by the U.S. Government, but it still disagrees with the decision.
“This process has run on for years, during which the DOJ first asked for over $200 million of new money to settle a plea deal—once we refused this ridiculous offer, they then sought a penalty of approximately $420 million in the sentencing proceedings,” The statement reads:
I added the fact that there was an exchange. “implemented significant improvements, including a best-in-class user verification program and comprehensive KYC and AML systems.” The first criminal charges filed were in 2020.
BitMEX was first charged with money laundering and civil penalties by the CFTC for operating illegally in the U.S.
At the same time, the U.S. Attorney for the District of New York also filed criminal actions against the exchange’s owners—Arthur Hayes, Ben Delo, and Samuel Reed—for allegedly conspiring to violate the Bank Secrecy Act.
Federal agents claimed at that time that the exchange did not verify accurately the identities of customers trading through its platform. Millions of dollars were taken from U.S. clients.
BitMEX has paid $100 Million in Civil Penalties to the U.S. Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) after it was alleged by FinCEN that BitMEX’s top management had committed financial crimes. “altered U.S. customer information to hide the customer’s true location.”
Edited By Andrew Hayward
Editor's note: This story was updated after publication with additional details.
