Several months after the US Commodity Futures Trading Commission charged the BitMEX operators and owners of illegally operating a derivatives exchange, one of the key participants – Arthur Hayes – is willing to surrender next month.
CryptoPotato reported back in late 2020 that the CFTC charged the BitMEX founders and executives with violations to the US Secrecy Act by “willfully failing to establish, implement, and maintain an adequate anti-money laundering program” on the derivatives trading platform.
The consequences for the exchange were immediate. One of the operators, Samuel Reed, was arrested before he was released on $5 million appearance bond. Hayes, on the other hand, remained at large but had to step down from his position as the CEO of the 100x Group – the organization that runs the exchange.
According to court documents regarding a hearing that took place on February 9th, Hayes is “currently residing abroad in Singapore.” However, the former BitMEX executive is in talks with the US government about potentially surrendering and appearing in court.
US Attorney Jessica Greenwood told the court that Hayes had “discussed a surrender date of April 6th, 2021 in Hawaii.” She added that “the plan is to notify the Court in advance of that appearance and discuss logistics for having him surrender and presented in Hawaii and then to remotely appear before your Honor.”
After his remote appearance, though, Hayes would “continue to reside abroad with travel to the United States for appearances as needed and, of course, if there is a trial, that he would appear within the United States for that trial in New York.”
Greenwood also explained that both sides are currently discussing a bail package.
The court transcript also touched upon the role and future of another co-founder – Ben Delo, and the former Head of Business Development – Greg Dwyer.
Greenwood outlined that her office was “unable to negotiate a voluntary surrender” from Dwyer, who resides in Bermuda. Consequently, the authorities have begun extradition proceedings, and “we anticipate – or we understand from counsel that those proceedings will be unopposed.”
On the other hand, Delo could voluntarily appear in the New York court as “at least counsel has represented that he is planning” to do so.
