Arthur Hayes, former CEO of crypto exchange BitMEX, has turned himself in to US authorities in Hawaii 6 months after federal prosecutors filed charges against him and three other BitMEX executives.
According to the statement shared by his lawyers, Hayes, who currently resides in Singapore, is "a self-made entrepreneur who has been wrongly accused of crimes that he did not commit. Mr. Hayes voluntarily appeared in court and looks forward to fighting these unwarranted charges."
Notably, the defendant has been released after paying a $10M bond pending further proceedings in New York. Hayes' surrender to authorities has been negotiated by his lawyers. Among the conditions are the payment of the aforementioned bond, as well as the withdrawal of his passport to travel between Singapore and the United States and the waiver of extradition mutually agreed by both parties.
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Hayes and BitMEX co-owner Ben Delo and former head of business development Greg Dwyer, and former BitMEX CTO Samuel Reed, have been charged with violating the Bank Secrecy Act by failing to maintain adequate anti-money laundering safeguards and failing to prevent US residents from accessing the platform in spite of the fact that the company was not registered with the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC).