Arthur Hayes, former CEO of BitMEX may soon return to the United States to stand trial.
This is reported by The Block, referencing the transcript of a hearing on the subject, and that would emerge from some excerpts posted on Twitter by Pavel Pogodin, an attorney representing the civil parties.
Arthur Hayes and the BitMEX allegations
The former CEO of the exchange had left his position in October 2020 following a complaint by the CFTC and the FBI. The accusation is that of having:
“violating the Bank Secrecy Act and conspiring to violate the Bank Secrecy Act, by willfully failing to establish, implement, and maintain an adequate anti-money laundering (“AML”) program at the Bitcoin Mercantile Exchange or BitMEX”.
Attorney Audrey Strauss had explained at the time:
“They allegedly allowed BitMEX to operate as a platform in the shadows of the financial markets. Today’s indictment is another push by this Office and our partners at the FBI to bring platforms for money laundering into the light”.
Shortly thereafter, Arthur Heyes resigned from BitMEX. The charges brought by the US authorities against not only him but also against Samuel Reed, Benjamin Delo and Gregory Dwyer are very serious and involve jail time. However, at the time, only Reed was arrested, while Hayes, Deki and Dwyer went into hiding.
According to the latest paperwork, Hayes is reportedly negotiating his surrender and has agreed to appear before the US authorities via satellite from Hawaii on April 6th. He is currently in Singapore. Procedures are underway to obtain the necessary documents to allow him to travel.
Ben Delo is also reportedly negotiating his surrender to the authorities and could appear directly before the New York courts.
Gregory Dwyer, on the other hand, is reportedly in Bermuda and does not wish to surrender himself voluntarily to the authorities, which is why the papers indicate that the extradition process has been initiated for him.
It seems that the case will have to be closed by a court ruling. In the meantime, BitMEX has renewed its top management.
The new CEO is Alexander Höptner, who also heads 100xGroup, which in turn owns BitMEX. His appointment was announced on December 1st, 2020. The new CEO comes directly from Börse Stuttgart. He is tasked with providing a clean slate.
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