“With this guilty plea, this Office has now obtained criminal convictions against the three founders, as well as a high-ranking employee at BitMEX, for willful violations of anti-money laundering laws,” said US Attorney Damian Williams.
The Justice Department said in a press release that Dwyer was a key player in BitMEX’s violations of the law, which included serving customers in the US even though it was not legal to sell its BitMEX products. cryptocurrency gambling to US customers
“Dwyer aided and abetted BitMEX in not instituting AML (anti-money laundering) or KYC (know your customer) programs despite closely following US regulatory developments that made clear the legal obligation to do so if BitMEX operated in the United States, which it did. .
Dwyer has worked as a senior executive within the group since 2015, running its Manhattan office and serving as head of business development. In 2019, he moved to work at the BitMEX offices in Bermuda.Credit:istock
“Dwyer knew that BitMEX’s alleged withdrawal from the US market after or around September 2015 was a sham, and that the alleged “controls” put in place by BitMEX to prevent US trading were an ineffective façade that did not, in fact, prevent users from accessing or trading on BitMEX from the United States.”
Under the terms of his plea agreement, Dwyer agreed to pay a separate criminal fine of $150,000 ($219,600), which the US Department of Justice said was representative of the monetary gain he derived from the crime.
Charging
A judge will decide Dwyer’s full sentence in the coming months, US authorities said. BitMEX has been contacted for comment.
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