BitMEX Crypto Exchange Money Laundering Trial Scheduled For March 2022

The trial over the money laundering allegations against cryptocurrency derivatives exchange BitMEX is scheduled to start in March 2022.

What Happened: According to Law360, New York District Judge John Koeltl scheduled the trial of BitMEX executives for March next year.

The defendants are the exchange's CEO Arthur Hayes, co-founder Benjamin Delo, and Chief Technology Officer Samuel Reed.

The BitMEX executives are accused of violating the Bank Secrecy Act and anti-money laundering laws and face up to five years in prison and a $250,000 fine if convicted.

The United States Department of Justice filed its charges against BitMex in the Southern District of New York in October, alleging that it was operating an unregistered trading platform and violating anti-money laundering regulations.

According to the 2019 indictment, Hayes bragged that bribing regulators in the Seychelles cost him just "a coconut."

The Commodities and Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) alleges that the owners and operators administered BitMEX through a “maze of corporate entities.”

Chief financial analyst at blockchain analytics firm CipherTrace John Jefferies explained in October that the exchange had an opportunity to fix its wrongdoings.

“BitMEX has been under investigation by the CFTC since early 2019 for allowing Americans to trade on the platform, and they were given time to improve their Customer Identification Program to effectively exclude US persons. It’s not that law enforcement hasn’t been following and warning BitMEX, but that BitMEX’s ongoing negligence and lack of compliance led to the hammer finally coming down on them.”