US court ordered BitMEX founders to pay $30 million

Arthur Hayes, Benjamin Delo, and Samuel Reed each must pay a fine of $10 million

06.05.2022 - 11:55

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What’s new? On May 5, the US District Court for the Southern District of New York ruled that co-founders of the BitMEX cryptocurrency derivatives exchange Arthur Hayes, Benjamin Delo, and Samuel Reed must pay a fine of $30 million. The court also warned the three founders against further violations of the Commodity Exchange Act (CEA) and the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) rules.

Court’s ruling on the CFTC’s website

What preceded it? The US Court’s ruling is based on a complaint filed by the CFTC on October 1, 2020, against the BitMEX platform and its three founders. Hayes, Delo, and Reed were accused of failing to comply with anti-money laundering (AML) measures, violating know your customer (KYC) procedures, as well as operating illegally in the United States, and violating the Bank Secrecy Act.

On February 24, 2022, Arthur Hayes and Benjamin Delo pleaded guilty to willfully violating the Bank Secrecy Act by failing to set up an anti-money laundering system. On March 9, Samuel Reed joined the other co-founders of BitMEX, also pleading guilty.

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