On Thursday, President Donald Trump granted presidential pardons to the co-founders of BitMEX: Arthur Hayes, Benjamin Delo, and Samuel Reed.
BitMEX, established in 2014, is a prominent platform for crypto derivatives trading, focusing on perpetual contracts and futures. Hayes served as the CEO of the Seychelles-based company.
In October 2020, U.S. authorities indicted the trio for violating the Bank Secrecy Act (BSA). They were accused of not implementing sufficient anti-money laundering (AML) measures, particularly lacking a “know your customer” (KYC) program. This failure allowed users to trade anonymously, raising concerns that BitMEX could facilitate illegal activities like money laundering and evading sanctions.
In May 2022, a court imposed a $10 million civil penalty on each co-founder and prohibited them from future violations of the Commodity Exchange Act and regulations from the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC).
Hayes received a two-year probation sentence, while Delo was sentenced to 30 months of probation and Reed to 18 months. Their legal issues led to their departure from leadership roles in 2020, with Vivien Khoo taking over as interim CEO.
This pardon follows Trump’s earlier decision to grant clemency to Ross Ulbricht, the founder of the Silk Road marketplace.
