President Trump Pardons Arthur Hayes, BitMEX, and Three Other Co-Founders and Employees
Arthur Hayes, the former head of BitMEX, pleaded guilty to one count of violating the Bank Secrecy Act and was sentenced to two years of probation.
Cheyenne Ligon, Nikhilesh De | Edited by Nikhilesh De Updated Mar 29, 2025 4:13 AM UTC Published Mar 28, 2025 8:04 PM UTC
Arthur Hayes, the former CEO of cryptocurrency platform BitMEX, has received a pardon from US President Donald Trump, an administration official confirmed on Friday.
Trump also pardoned Hayes' BitMEX co-founders Samuel Reed and Benjamin Delo, as well as senior employee Greg Dwyer and BitMEX's operating arm, HDR Global Trading, a BitMEX spokesperson said. CNBC first reported the pardons, which the White House said were signed Thursday.
In 2020, the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) filed charges against BitMEX, its three co-founders, and its first employee, Dwyer, accusing them of violating the Bank Secrecy Act (BSA). Prosecutors alleged that BitMEX marketed itself as a platform where customers could operate virtually anonymously without providing basic know-your-customer (KYC) information. All four eventually pleaded guilty and received fines and probation. The exchange itself pleaded guilty to violating the BSA last year.
Hayes faced two years of probation; Dole served 30 months on probation and Reed served 18 months. Dwyer received 12 months of probation.
In his statement, Delo said he and his colleagues had been “unjustly targeted.”
“This full and unconditional pardon from President Trump reaffirms the position we have always held — BitMEX, my co-founders, and I should never have been charged with a crime under obscure, outdated legislation,” he said. “As the most successful cryptocurrency exchange, we have been wrongfully used as an example, victimized by political motives, and used to send inconsistent regulatory messages. I am truly grateful to the President for granting this pardon to me and my co-founders.”
Hayes simply wrote “thank you” on X (formerly known as Twitter).
Thank you @POTUS
— Arthur Hayes (@CryptoHayes) March 28, 2025
The Commodity Futures Trading Commission has ordered BitMEX to pay $100 million for violating the Commodity Exchange Act and other CFTC rules in 2021, separate from a settlement with the U.S. Department of Justice.
Lawyers representing Hayes, Delo and Reed did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
The reported pardons come just a day after Trump pardoned Trevor Milton, the former CEO of Nikola Motors who was previously convicted of fraud, in 2022. In January, Trump made good on his long-standing promise to pardon Silk Road creator Ross Ulbricht, who had spent 11 years on a stiff sentence of two life terms plus 40 years without the possibility of parole. Following Ulbricht’s pardon, former FTX CEO and convicted fraudster Sam Bankman-Fried sought his own pardon in an attempt to bring
Источник
