In a blog post, the crypto derivatives exchange giant BITMEX announced that Malcolm Wright would come aboard as chief compliance officer for the group. The U.S. authorities recently charged BitMEX for violating anti-money laundering laws. Wright has 30 years of experience in compliance and anti-money laundering, per the post. Wright currently chairs the Advisory Council and AML Working Group at Global Digital Finance and is a speaker on topics including the Financial Action Tasks Force’s international guidance for regulators around virtual asset service providers.
BitMEX co-founders charged with violating US AML laws.
BitMEX executives Arthur Hayes, Benjamin Delo, Samuel Reed, and Gregory Dwyer were charged with one count of violating the Bank Secrecy Act and one count of conspiracy, according to an indictment made public earlier. BitMEX has received more than $11 billion in bitcoin deposits from accounts with the U.S. connections since 2014 and has earned more than $1 billion in fees, the Commodity Futures Trading Commission alleged in its own civil lawsuit. The US CFTC alleged that BitMEX failed to implement the most basic compliance procedures,” such as registering their activity with the CFTC.
Malcolm Wright will lead the group’s compliance efforts internationally.
According to the blog post, the new hire will lead the group’s compliance efforts internationally and will report to the new interim CEO and COO Vivien Khoo. Khoo replaced former CEO Arthur Hayes last week amid the fallout from the legal issues that hit the company on October 1. BitMEX founders were charged by both the U.S. CFTC and federal prosecutors in New York over allegations the exchange had illegally offered derivatives trading to customers in the U.S. and violated the Bank Secrecy Act. However, BitMEX operators have since said it will carry out business as usual but saw fit to shake up the executive team, removing Hayes and other founders Samuel Reed and Ben Delo from executive roles.
