Gregory Dwyer a former executive of BitMEX cryptocurrency exchange has pleaded guilty in front of the Southern District of New York’s US District Court to breaking the U.S. Bank Secrecy Act.
In the two-year-old legal proceeding known as U.S. v. Hayes et al., where BitMEX management is accused of breaking the Bank Secrecy Act, another top executive has entered a guilty plea in front of the Southern District of New York’s US District Court.
According to the Wall Street Journal, Gregory Dwyer, a former head of business development at BitMEX, admitted in court on Monday that he had broken the Bank Secrecy Act. Dwyer would pay a $150,000 fine as part of a plea agreement.
In his response to this news, Manhattan attorney Damian Williams said:
“Today’s plea reflects that employees with management authority at cryptocurrency exchanges, no less than the founders of such exchanges, cannot willfully disregard their obligations under the Bank Secrecy Act.”
Williams lists several founders, and each one of them had previously entered guilty pleas. On February 24, 2022, former CEO Arthur Hayes and one of the co-founders, Ben Delo, pled guilt. Samuel Reed, the third co-founder, filed a plea two weeks later.
Delo was given 30 months probation, Hayes was given two years probation, and Reed could spend up to five years in jail. A $10 million fine would be paid separately by Reed and jointly by Hayes and Delo.
In 2020, Dwyer and three other BitMEX co-founders were charged. Because the Seychelles-based exchange didn’t make enough of an effort to prevent American users from joining up, the prosecution charged it with making a fake withdrawal from the American market.
Additionally, BitMEX was charged with operating as a platform for money laundering despite not having the required Anti-Money Laundering (AML) and Know Your Customer (KYC) processes.
