Former BitMEX CEO Arthur Hayes has surrendered to US authorities and will be released on a $10 million bond pending future court proceedings.
Arthur Hayes, co-founder and former CEO of the BitMEX exchange, has surrendered and will face charges relating to the failure to implement money laundering measures. A resident of Singapore, Hayes turned himself over to U.S. authorities. Following his surrender, he appeared in court in Honolulu, Hawaii.
U.S. officials charged Hayes, along with co-founders Benjamin Delo and Samuel Reed, with failure to uphold AML laws and violating the Banking Secrecy Act. At the time, BitMEX was one of the biggest names in the crypto market yet to undergo trial for violations.
The former CEO agreed to surrender on a $10 million bond. The decision makes Hayes the last of the founders to surrender to authorities.
Hayes’ lawyers claim that he’s been wrongly accused;
“Arthur Hayes is a self-made entrepreneur who has been wrongly accused of crimes that he did not commit. Mr. Hayes voluntarily appeared in court and looks forward to fighting these unwarranted charges.”
Hayes formerly worked at Citigroup and founded BitMEX in 2014. The exchange became popular because of its high leverage and margin trading features. Since the case, volumes on BitMEX have dropped significantly.
To address the concerns put forward by U.S. authorities, BitMEX accelerated its KYC program for users. The exchange warned that it would cancel accounts that didn’t confirm their identities. It followed through with this, but it has done little to help its case.
BitMEX case moving forward
BitMEX is not the only crypto company facing litigation for potential wrongdoings. U.S. authorities have also ramped up their investigations on other companies—most notably Ripple. A large number of these cases have to do with alleged securities violations.
Ripple, the creator of the fourth-largest cryptocurrency in the market is facing a lawsuit from the SEC regarding securities violations. It firmly denies the allegations, even claiming that it never held an ICO.
The U.S. Internal Revenue Service (IRS) is accelerating its efforts to ensure compliance. The IRS previously offered grants to anyone who could crack Monero’s privacy protocol. It’s even also considering using AI and machine learning to trace crypto transactions.
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