August 25, 2022:
Defendant charged with "violating the Bank Secrecy Act ... by willfully failing to establish, implement, and maintain an anti-money laundering (“AML”) program at BitMEX, and aiding and abetting the same." Defendants "willfully caused BitMEX to fail to establish and maintain an AML program, including a program for verifying the identify of BitMEX’s customers (or a “know your customer” or “KYC” program)." DOJ Link
"As a result of its willful failure to implement AML and KYC programs, BitMEX was in effect a money laundering platform." Defendant "aided and abetted BitMEX’s failure to institute AML or KYC programs despite closely following U.S. regulatory developments that made clear the legal obligation to do so if BitMEX operated in the United States, which it did."
Government charged that Defendant "knew that BitMEX’s purported withdrawal from the U.S. market ... was a sham, and .... States that purported “controls” BitMEX put in place to prevent U.S. trading were an ineffective facade that did not, in fact, prevent users from accessing or trading on BitMEX from the United States."
Defendant plead guilty to one count of violating the Bank Secrecy Act, which carries a maximum penalty of five years in prison. Under the terms of his plea agreement, he agreed to separately pay a $150,000 criminal fine representing pecuniary gain derived from the offense.