U.S. President Donald Trump has granted a pardon to Arthur Hayes, the former CEO of the cryptocurrency exchange BitMEX, as confirmed by a White House official on Friday.
Trump also pardoned Hayes’ co-founders at BitMEX, Samuel Reed and Benjamin Delo. The news was first reported by CNBC.
In 2020, the U.S. Department of Justice charged BitMEX and its co-founders along with first employee Gregory Dwyer, accusing them of breaching the Bank Secrecy Act by allowing customers to use the platform anonymously without meeting basic identification requirements. All four eventually pleaded guilty and accepted penalties including probation.
Hayes was sentenced to two years of probation; Delo served 30 months, Reed 18 months, while Dwyer had 12 months of probation.
In a statement, Delo asserted that he and his colleagues were unjustly targeted. “This full and unconditional pardon by President Trump validates our longstanding position—that BitMEX and my co-founders and I were wrongly charged under an antiquated law. As the leading crypto exchange, we were unfairly made examples of for political objectives. I sincerely appreciate the President for granting this pardon to us.”
The Commodity Futures Trading Commission previously fined BitMEX $100 million for violating regulations distinct from their Department of Justice resolutions.
This pardon announcement follows closely on the heels of Trump’s earlier pardon granted to Trevor Milton, the former CEO of Nikola Motors, who had been found guilty of fraud.
Changpeng Zhao (CZ), former CEO of Binance, who was convicted on similar charges, has publicly denied claims of seeking a pardon from Trump but acknowledged that any felon would desire one, given his unique jail experience for a single BSA violation.
