President Donald Trump Has Granted Pardons to Three Founders of the BitMEX Cryptocurrency Exchange

WASHINGTON − President Donald Trump has granted pardons to three founders of the BitMEX cryptocurrency exchange, according to a source familiar with the clemency.

President Donald Trump has granted pardons to three founders of the BitMEX cryptocurrency exchange, according to a source familiar with the clemency.

The co-founders – Arthur Hayes, Benjamin Delo and Samuel Reed – previously pleaded guilty in 2022 to one count each of violating the Bank Secrecy Act for flouting money laundering rules and failing to police the exchange. Trump signed the pardons Thursday without publicizing the action.

BitMEX was fined $100 million in January for violating the Bank Secrecy Act by willfully failing to establish, implement, and maintain an adequate anti-money laundering and know-your-customer program.

Delo issued a statement Friday saying the Justice Department "wrongfully targeted BitMEX and its co-founders." Delo also expressed his gratefulness to Trump for the pardon.

“This full and unconditional pardon by President Trump is a vindication of the position we have always held – that BitMEX, my co-founders and I should never have been charged with a criminal offense through an obscure, antiquated law," Delo said. “As the most successful crypto exchange of its kind, we were wrongfully made to serve as an example, sacrificed for political reasons and used to send inconsistent regulatory signals.”

"A legal wrong has been righted today and despite the distress I have been through over the past few years I’m pleased to have cleared my name and to be able to continue my life and philanthropic work without the burden of an unfounded conviction," Delo added.

Hayes posted a note on social media saying "thank you" to Trump.

Federal prosecutors had said as cryptocurrencies proliferate, companies engaged in the virtual economy become critical gatekeepers to ensure markets are fair, efficient and secure. Then-U.S. Attorney Damian Williams said the founders of Bitcoin Mercantile Exchange, nicknamed BitMEX, failed to implement even basic anti-money laundering policies.

“They allowed BitMEX to operate as a platform in the shadows of the financial markets,” Williams said.

BitMEX is an online cryptocurrency derivatives exchange that served thousands of U.S. customers, according to court records. From at least September 2015 through the indictment of the founders in September 2020, the company "was in effect a money laundering platform," according to court records.

The company’s website advertised that “no real name or other advanced verification is required on BitMEX,” according to court records. Reed wrote an email in August 2015 that BitMEX’s advantages included “the freedom to create an account without onerous KYC requirements,” referring to the federal requirements to “know your customer.”

Reed was notified in May 2018 of allegations that BitMEX was being used to launder the proceeds of a cryptocurrency hack, prosecutors said in court records. But neither Reed nor the company filed a suspicious activity report with the Treasury Department.

Hayes of Miami and Delo of the United Kingdom and Hong Kong each pleaded guilty in February 2022 to one count of violating the Bank Secrecy Act. Each agreed to pay a $10 million fine. Reed pleaded guilty in March 2022 to the same crime and agreed to the same penalty.

Hayes was sentenced in May 2022 to two years of probation, with the first six months in home detention. Delo was sentenced in June 2022 to 30 months of probation. Reed was sentenced in July 2022 to 18 months of probation.

Prosecutors disagreed with the sentences, arguing that they should have been above the federal guidelines applied in the case because of the seriousness of the crimes.