Ending the long-awaited trial related to money laundering activities on the BitMEX cryptocurrency exchange, one of the four federal district courts in New York would have sentenced the founder and former CEO Arthur Hayes.
Hayes, along with the other BitMEX co-founders – Benjamin Delo and Samuel Reed – and the company’s first non-employee, Gregory Dwyer, pleaded guilty to Bank Secrecy Act (BSA) violations. on February 24, admitting “intentionally failing to establish, implement and maintain an anti-money laundering (AML) program at BitMEX.”
Pleading guilty to supporting money laundering is a punishable offence, usually carrying a maximum sentence of five years in prison. However, both Hayes and Delo pleaded guilty before the March trial date and agreed to pay $10 million in criminal fines each.
On April 7, Cointelegraph reported that Hayes voluntarily surrendered to US authorities in Hawaii. six months after federal prosecutors filed the first charges, to which their attorneys responded:
“Mr. Hayes has voluntarily appeared in court and looks forward to fighting these unwarranted charges.”
According to the indictment, public court records, and statements made in court, Hayes was released on $10 million bail pending further proceedings in New York. However, prosecutors from the Bureau’s Money Laundering and Transnational Criminal Enterprises Unit found the entrepreneurs guilty of failing to apply anti-money laundering safeguards, including breaching know-your-customer (KYC) obligations. .
Despite the imminent possibility of prison time, confessing to the accusations made Hayes was sentenced to a house arrest sentence that requires him to spend the first six months of his sentence away from home. In addition, he also agreed to pay a $10 million fine.
Breaking the myth related to the ease of money laundering using cryptocurrencies, a new analysis highlights the potential of blockchain technology and cryptocurrencies to track financial crimes.
While numerous projects within the cryptocurrency ecosystem fell victim to targeted attacks, malicious actors continue to struggle when it comes to withdrawing and moving stolen funds.
Speaking to Cointelegraph, Dmytro Volkov, chief technology officer of cryptocurrency exchanges CEX.IO, said that the notion that cryptocurrencies are primarily used by criminals is outdated, adding:
“In the case of Bitcoin (BTC), whose blockchain ledger is publicly available, a serious exchange with a competent analytics team can easily monitor and thwart hackers and launderers before the damage is done.”
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