Former US President Donald Trump pardoned three founders of the digital currency exchange BitMEX who had confessed to violating anti-money laundering laws. Arthur Hayes, Benjamin Delo, and Samuel Reed, who launched the exchange in 2014, had previously admitted to charges related to bank secrecy laws. Prosecutors alleged that they allowed American customers to trade without proper identity checks. In 2022, the trio was sentenced to suspended penalties and collectively paid millions of dollars in fines. Delo called this pardon an ‘exoneration’ and claimed they should never have been pursued. At its peak, BitMEX processed billions of dollars in daily trading volume. This case was one of the first instances where the federal government pursued criminal penalties against operators of digital currency exchanges.
