BitMEX Executive Surrenders to U.S. Authorities, Pleads Not Guilty
- Ben Delo has pleaded not guilty to charges of violating U.S. anti-money laundering laws, and was granted a $20 million bail.
- Delo, Arthur Hayes and Samuel Reed have all agreed to cooperate with U.S. authorities, while Gregory Dwyer continues to remain at large.
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The co-founder of crypto derivatives exchange BitMEX, Ben Delo, has pleaded not guilty to charges of violating U.S. anti-money laundering laws during a remote proceeding, Bloomberg reported on 15 March.
According to the publication, Delo traveled from the U.K. and surrendered to U.S. authorities in New York on Monday to face charges of violating the U.S. Bank Secrecy Act (BSA). He appeared before Magistrate Judge Sarah L. Cave in a remote proceeding, where he pleaded not guilty to all charges, and was subsequently released on a bail bond of $20 million, with the terms of the bail allowing him to return to the U.K.. A representative of Delo, Rachel Miller, said in a statement:
“The charges against Ben are unfounded and represent unwarranted overreach by the U.S. authorities. Ben intends to defend himself against the charges and clear his name in court.”
Delo — alongside his fellow BitMEX executives Arthur Hayes, Samuel Reed, and their first employee Greg Dwyer — was accused by the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) and Department of Justice (DoJ) of operating an unregistered trading platform back in October. The executives were also accused of violating U.S. anti-money laundering laws, and providing unlicensed services to U.S. citizens.
All of BitMEX’s co-founders have now agreed to cooperate with U.S. authorities regarding this case. Reed, the ex-CTO of the firm, was arrested back in October, and released from custody after he agreed to comply with the court, and pay a $5 million bail bond. The former CEO, Hayes, is currently in Singapore, but has discussed surrendering to U.S. authorities in Hawaii in early April. However, BitMEX’s first employee and head of business development, Dwyer, has declined to surrender, though U.S. authorities have already initiated extradition proceedings to bring him back from the Bermudas. A spokesperson for Dwyer said in a statement shared with The Chain Bulleting:
“Mr. Dwyer has every intention to defend himself in court against these meritless charges. To that end, his attorneys are working with the government to arrange for his appearance in court.”
Update: Added a statement from a representative of Greg Dwyer.
- During an interview with FT, CEO Brian Armstrong said that before the lawsuit a SEC staff member had said that all crypto except BTC was security, and should be delisted.
- When asked how he came to that conclusion, the SEC staff member reportedly said “we’re not going to explain it to you, you need to delist every asset other that Bitcoin”.
Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong appears on stage at the 2014 TechCrunch Disrupt Europe/London, at The Old Billingsgate on October 21, 2014 in London, England. Anthony Harvey/Getty Images for TechCrunch
- The CFTC is suing crypto exchange Binance and CEO Changpeng “CZ” Zhao for allegedly violating trading and derivatives laws in the U.S..
- The regulator claimed that the platform had instructed its U.S.-based customers on how to evade its compliance controls through the use of VPNs.
- Back on 30 January, Judge Lewis Kaplan ruled in favor of four separate petitions from major news outlets to release the names of the two co-signers of the $250 million bail bond.
- SBF, however, continues with his attempts to keep their identities a secret, and his appeal will now prevent the court order from being enforced until 14 February.