The trial of Gregory Dwyer, head of business development at the BitMEX derivatives exchange, has been postponed until October 2022 due to his extradition from Bermuda to the United States.
In October 2020, the New York Federal Attorney’s Office accused Gregory Dwyer, BitMEX CEO Arthur Hayes, exchange CTO Samuel Reed and co-founder Benjamin Delo of violating the Banking Law. confidentiality, illegal business conduct in the United States and non-compliance with KYC and AML procedures.
In August, BitMEX announced the settlement of claims by the US Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) and the US Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN), agreeing to pay $ 110 million in compensation. However, the US Department of Justice continues to prosecute BitMEX executives for violating the Act. about banking secrecy. The prosecutor’s office claims that Dwyer had a great influence on the activities of the exchange and was aware of the illegal actions taken by BitMEX.
Hayes, Delo, and Reed surrendered to US authorities in March and face up to five years in prison if found guilty. The trial of the former BitMEX executives is set to take place in March 2022. As for Dwyer, US District Judge John Koeltl agreed to a request from Dwyer’s lawyers to postpone the trial until next October. Dwyer’s defense argues that their client did not have as much time to prepare for trial as the other three BitMEX executives, as he tried to prevent his extradition from Bermuda to the United States, but his actions were unsuccessful.
Damian Lewis, US Attorney for the Southern District of New York, has challenged the postponement of the trial date. Dwyer has known that the CFTC has been investigating BitMEX since at least April 2019, he said. The prosecutor believes that Dwyer would have had the same amount of time to prepare for the trial if he had surrendered to the US authorities earlier, but he did not take this opportunity. Lewis said the trial of the three BitMEX executives would give Dwyer an unfair advantage as he already knew the evidence that prosecutors are planning to use against him. Despite the prosecutor’s arguments, the judge dismissed his protest.
BitMEX recently announced plans to launch 450 million BMEX tokens, the owners of which will receive discounts on trading operations and increased profitability from exchange products. Probably, this initiative is aimed at attracting new users, since during the proceedings with regulators, the exchange lost many clients.
