Policy, BitMEX, Arthur Hayes, Trump Arthur Hayes, the previous CEO of BitMEX, pleaded responsible to 1 rely of violating the Bank Secrecy Act and was sentenced to 2 years probation.
Arthur Hayes, the previous CEO of crypto trade BitMEX, has been granted a pardon by U.S. President Donald Trump, in accordance with a Friday report from CNBC.
Trump reportedly additionally pardoned Hayes’ co-founders at BitMEX, Samuel Reed and Benjamin Delo.
In 2020, the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) introduced costs in opposition to BitMEX, its three co-founders, and its first worker, Gregory Dwyer, accusing them of violating the Bank Secrecy Act (BSA). Prosecutors alleged BitMEX marketed itself as a spot the place prospects might use its platform just about anonymously, with out offering primary know-your-customer (KYC) data. All 4 people ultimately pleaded responsible and had been sentenced to fines and probationary sentences. The trade itself pleaded guilty to violating the BSA final 12 months.
Hayes confronted two years of probation; Delo spent 30 months and Reed 18 months. Dwyer acquired 12 months of probation.
The Commodity Futures Trading Commission ordered BitMEX to pay $100 million for violating the Commodity Exchange Act and different CFTC rules in 2021, individually from its DOJ settlements.
Attorneys representing Hayes, Delo and Reed didn’t instantly return requests for remark.
The reported pardons come only a day after Trump granted a pardon to Trevor Milton, the previous CEO of Nikola Motors who was beforehand convicted of fraud in 2022. In January, Trump made good on long-standing guarantees to pardon Silk Road creator Ross Ulbricht, who was 11 years right into a draconian sentence of double life in jail plus 40 years, with no risk of parole. Since Ulbricht’s pardon, former FTX CEO and convicted fraudster Sam Bankman-Fried has been angling for his personal pardon, trying to curry favor with the Trump administration and showing on Tucker Carlson in an unauthorized jailhouse interview that landed him in solitary confinement.
Former Binance CEO Changpeng “CZ” Zhao, who pleaded responsible to the identical cost as Hayes and served 4 months in jail final 12 months — making him not solely the richest particular person to ever go to jail within the U.S., but additionally the one particular person to ever serve jail time for violating the BSA — has denied reviews that he, too, is looking for a pardon from President Trump.
But, Zhao admitted in a current X submit that “no felon would mind a pardon, especially being the only one in US history who was ever sentenced to prison for a single BSA charge.”
CoinDesk: Bitcoin, Ethereum, Crypto News and Price Data Read More