Trump Pardons BitMEX Co-Founders And One High-Ranking Former Employee
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US President Donald Trump granted pardons to three co-founders of BitMEX, a well-known global crypto exchange, as well as one of its former high-ranking employees.
The three co-founders include the former CEO, Arthur Hayes, Benjamin Delo, and Samuel Reed. The former employee at the exchange who was also pardoned by the president is Gregory Dwyer, who used to work as the head of business development at BitMEX.
All four individuals previously pled guilty to one count of violating the Bank Secrecy Act, tied to failure to maintain the KYC and AML procedures. All of them were found guilty, receiving criminal sentences of probation of different lengths. On top of that, they were also ordered to pay civil fines, which amounted to $30 million in total.
Dwyer himself received a sentence of 12 months of probation and has agreed to pay $150k in fines. On top of the mentioned charges, the prosecutors also accused the former exchange officials of operating BitMEX as a money laundering platform, calling its withdrawal from the US market “a sham.”
BitMEX Co-Founder Insists On Being Sentenced Using Outdated Laws
However, Trump decided to pardon the four last Thursday — over three months after BitMEX itself was sentenced to pay $100 million for violating the Bank Secrecy Act.
Hayes responded with a post on X, in which he thanked Trump with a simple “Thank you POTUS,” using a popular term for “President of the United States.”
Benjamin Delo, on the other hand, went a bit further by saying that the US Department of Justice wrongfully targeted the exchange and its officials. He added that the unconditional pardon by Trump is a vindication of the position that the officials always held, which is that BitMEX, as well as its co-founders, should not have been charged with a criminal offense using an obscure antiquated law.
In addition to the four BitMEX-associated individuals, Trump also pardoned Trevor Milton, the founder and former CEO of electric truck maker Nikola. Milton said on Thursday that the president pardoned him for his criminal conviction involving securities fraud, after he was sentenced to four years in prison, but remained free on appeal.
