On June 15, BitMEX founder Benjamin Delo was sentenced to 30 months without parole for violating US anti-money laundering laws.
Delo avoided arrest after being sentenced in a New York court. Delo will also be free to return to Hong Kong, where he and his wife currently reside. He told the U.S. Regional Judge John Koeltl that not immediately acting to ensure BitMEX did not work for state users was a bad move.
His lawyer, Patrick Smith, said the former official was involved in a breach of the law. Smith, on the other hand, said BitMEX was not created to evade the law, and that Delo has banned hundreds of responsible people in the United States.
In violation of the country’s anti-money laundering law, BitMEX founders Arthur Hayes and Samuel Reed, as well as the first official trading agent Gregory Dwyer, were prosecuted on similar charges.
The prosecutor, who opposed Hayes for a difficult time, said Delo should serve a year in prison or be sentenced to at least two years in prison.
Hayes, like the other defendants, was sentenced to six months in prison as part of a two-year probationary period. As part of a confession agreement with prosecutors and the US Commercial Trade Commission, Delo and Hayes each paid. $10 million (CFTC) fine.
The most recent penalty kicks off the official odyssey of the long-standing crypto platform, which started in 2020.
Read more: US prosecutors say BitMEX Co-Founder Arthur Hayes should be in jail for more than one year
