NEW YORK : The cryptocurrency exchange BitMEX has been fined $100 million for deliberately ignoring U.S. anti-money laundering laws in order to boost revenue, the U.S. Department of Justice said on Wednesday.
BitMEX, also known as HDR Global Trading, was sentenced by U.S. District Judge John Koeltl in Manhattan, after pleading guilty last July.
The sentence includes two years of probation. BitMEX and its founders, who entered related guilty pleas in 2022 and were sentenced to probation, previously paid about $110 million in related criminal and civil cases, court papers show.
Lawyers for BitMEX did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
Prosecutors accused BitMEX and founders Benjamin Delo, Arthur Hayes and Samuel Reed of willfully violating the Bank Secrecy Act between 2015 and 2020 by failing to adopt anti-money laundering and “know your customer” programs, effectively turning the exchange into a money laundering platform.
In 2021, BitMEX agreed to pay up to $100 million to settle civil charges by two U.S. regulators it improperly screened customers, and accepted their money to trade cryptocurrencies without being registered.
Prosecutors had sought a $417 million fine in the criminal case, saying BitMEX “has not demonstrated acceptance of responsibility in any real sense,” and BitMEX pleaded guilty after realizing it had “no choice” after its founders’ pleas.
BitMEX said no further fine was necessary, citing the earlier payouts and saying it had become a “compliant business” that rectified its past mistakes.
It also said that like many other cryptocurrency exchanges, it was too slow to adjust to changes in the industry during a period of regulatory uncertainty.
