The first employee of BitMEX pleaded guilty on Monday to violating US bank secrecy laws by failing to establish an anti-money laundering program, after guilty pleas to the same charge by the three co-founders of BitMEX.
Gregory Dwyer, 39, of Australia and Bermuda, entered a plea before US District Judge John Koeltl in Manhattan. He agreed to pay $150,000 in fines.
From 2015 to 2020, Dwyer and BitMEX founders Benjamin Delo, Arthur Hayes and Samuel Reed willfully violate the Bank Secrecy Act by failing to adopt anti-money laundering and know your customer programs, turning the exchange into a money laundering platform, according to the prosecutors.
Dwyer was the head of business development at BitMEX, short for the Bitcoin Mercantile Exchange.
Delo, Hayes and Reed could face up to five years in prison, though they were each sentenced to probation.
A lawyer for Dwyer didn't respond immediately to requests for comment.
Two US financial regulators accused BitMEX of failing to properly screen customers and accept customer funds to trade cryptocurrencies without being registered in August.