The co-founder and former chief govt of the cryptocurrency alternate BitMEX has been sentenced to 6 months of home arrest after pleading responsible to violating the US Financial institution Secrecy Act, US prosecutors mentioned.
Arthur Hayes, 36, may even pay a $10 million advantageous and serve two years of probation following his home arrest for failing to determine an anti-money laundering program at BitMEX, which he based with Benjamin Delo and Samuel Reed in 2014.
Hayes was sentenced in federal courtroom in Manhattan on Friday.
“While building a cryptocurrency platform that profited him millions of dollars, Arthur Hayes willfully defied US law that requires businesses to do their part to help in preventing crime and corruption,” Damian Williams, the highest federal prosecutor in Manhattan, mentioned in a press release.
Prosecutors had sought a “significant” jail time period, saying a $10m advantageous was not sufficient to discourage different cryptocurrency firms from related conduct.
Hayes’ attorneys had sought probation, with out dwelling detention.
A spokesperson for Hayes declined to touch upon the sentence.
Delo and Reed have pleaded responsible and await sentencing.
The three had been charged in 2020 with failing to implement a “know your customer” requirement as required by federal legislation.
Prosecutors mentioned BitMEX was “in effect a money-laundering platform,” and Hayes did nothing after studying in 2018 of allegations that BitMEX was getting used to launder proceeds from a cryptocurrency hack.
BitMEX final 12 months agreed to pay as much as $100m to settle separate expenses for unlawfully accepting buyer funds to commerce cryptocurrency with out being registered, and failing to conduct buyer due diligence.
