The global crypto exchange, BitMEX, has been fined another US$100 million for breaching U.S. anti-money laundering rules.
The U.S. attorney’s office for the Southern District of New York announced that HDR Global Trading Ltd., a Seychelles-based company that operates the BitMEX crypto platform, was sanctioned for violating U.S. banking law by failing to establish adequate anti-money laundering and know-your-customer (KYC) programs, which enabled U.S. customers to use the platform.
The company pled guilty to violating U.S. law back in July 2024, and was sentenced today. Along with the fine, it was also sentenced to two years probation.
According to the U.S. attorney’s office, the company, which was founded in 2014, flouted U.S. rules through at least 2018, by failing to adopt anti-money laundering policies that included KYC checks. In addition, it said, the company knew its policies to prevent trading by U.S. customers were “toothless or easily overridden to serve BitMEX’s bottom line goal of obtaining revenue through the U.S. market without regard to U.S. criminal laws.”
Previously, several of the company’s executives pled guilty to violations of banking laws, and they were sentenced in 2022.
And in 2021, the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) obtained a consent order against five companies, including HDR Global, for operating the BitMEX platform in violation of U.S. law. That order also required the firms to pay a US$100-million civil penalty.
In a statement, HDR said: “Whilst we are disappointed to learn of the imposition of an additional financial penalty, the amount is substantially less than what the Department of Justice have been pursuing us for over three years.”
The firm said that U.S. authorities initially demanded US$200 million to settle the case, and later sought a US$420 million penalty.
“Given that the court has determined an amount substantially below these levels is a justification of our stance and we query whether U.S. taxpayer resources could have been better applied over this period,” it said.
The firm also said that it has beefed up its controls and KYC procedures, and said that the violations are “old news.”
“We are glad to move past this matter, and look forward to continuing to focus on innovation and delivering the best products and services to our users without further distraction,” it added.