US President Donald Trump has pardoned all three founders of the BitMEX cryptocurrency exchange, per a CNBC report. The co-founders, former CEO Arthur Hayes, Benjamin Delo, and Samuel Reed, previously pled guilty to various federal criminal charges related to money laundering using the platform. Trump issued the pardons on Thursday.

Prosecutors accused the men of effectively operating BitMEX as a “money laundering platform” and that its purported withdrawal from the U.S. market was “a sham.” The trio received criminal sentences of probation and were ordered to pay civil fines totaling $30 million.

Bitmex Founders Walk Free

Hayes, Delo, and Reed founded BITMEX in 2014. The DOJ said that BitMEX promoted itself as a platform where retail consumers could trade without real-name verification. This was the case up until September 2020, when it permitted users to register and transact in cryptocurrencies. While it was required to implement an AML program that included a KYC component, Bitmex chose to abandon those requirements, requiring only that customers provide an email address to use BITMEX’s services. This led to former CEO Alexander Hoeptner deciding to sue the exchange.

Just over three months ago, BitMEX was sentenced to pay a fine of $100M for violating the Bank Secrecy Act. The exchange failed to establish and maintain anti-money-laundering and “know your customer” (KYC) programs.

Benjamin Delo, the former COO and chief strategy officer of BitMEX, had been sentenced to 30 months of probation after his guilty plea in U.S. District Court in Manhattan. Arthur Hayes was sentenced to six months of home confinement, followed by two years of probation. Samuel Reed served as the exchange’s former chief technology officer and was sentenced to 18 months of probation.

BitMex Research posted a congratulatory post to the founders on X, “Congratulations to Arthur, Ben, Sam and Greg.” The DOJ has yet to comment on Trump’s pardons.

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