In a quietly executed move, President Donald Trump has granted full pardons to the three co-founders of the cryptocurrency exchange BitMEX—Arthur Hayes, Benjamin Delo, and Samuel Reed—according to a source familiar with the matter. The trio had pleaded guilty in 2022 to violating the Bank Secrecy Act for failing to implement proper anti-money laundering (AML) protocols and know-your-customer (KYC) measures.
Trump reportedly signed the pardons on Thursday without making a public announcement, a decision that has stirred debate in legal and financial circles.
BitMEX was fined $100 million in early 2022 for what federal authorities called “willful failure” to establish an adequate AML framework. Prosecutors had accused the platform of functioning as a “money laundering platform” from 2015 through 2020, allowing users to trade without disclosing their identities.
Despite the conviction, Delo released a statement Friday claiming the Justice Department had “wrongfully targeted” the exchange and its leadership. “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 under an obscure, antiquated law,” Delo said.
He further argued that BitMEX was unfairly made an example of in an inconsistent regulatory environment. “A legal wrong has been righted today,” he added, expressing relief at the removal of what he called an “unfounded conviction.”
Hayes, of Miami, and Delo, a resident of the UK and Hong Kong, each agreed to pay $10 million in fines and received probation sentences in 2022. Reed, who also paid a $10 million penalty, was sentenced to 18 months’ probation.
Federal prosecutors had previously insisted the founders deserved harsher penalties, citing the platform’s role in enabling illicit transactions. Then-U.S. Attorney Damian Williams accused the exchange of operating “in the shadows of the financial markets.”
The unexpected pardons could reignite controversy over cryptocurrency regulation and the selective application of justice in white-collar crimes.
