Bringing closure to the long-awaited judgment related to the money laundering activities over the BitMEX crypto exchange, one of the four federal district courthouses in New York reportedly sentenced two-year probation and six months of home detention to founder and ex-CEO Arthur Hayes<\/a>.<\/p>\n Arthur Hayes, along with the other BitMEX co-founders \u2014 Benjamin Delo and Samuel Reed \u2014 and the company\u2019s first non-employee Gregory Dwyer, pleaded guilty to the Bank Secrecy Act (BSA) violations<\/a> on Feb 24, admitting<\/a> to \u201cwillfully failing to establish, implement and maintain an Anti-Money Laundering (AML) program at BitMEX.\u201d<\/p>\n Pleading guilty to supporting money laundering is a punishable offense, often carrying a maximum penalty of five years prison time. However, both Hayes and Delo made their guilty pleas ahead of the March trial date and had agreed to pay $10 million in criminal fines each.<\/p>\n On April 7, Cointelegraph reported that Hayes voluntarily surrendered to US authorities in Hawaii<\/a> six months after federal prosecutors first levied charges, to which his lawyers stated:<\/p>\n \u201cMr. Hayes voluntarily appeared in court and looks forward to fighting these unwarranted charges.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n According<\/a> to the indictment, public court filings, and statements made in court, Hayes was released after posting a $10-million bail bond pending future proceedings in New York<\/a>. However, prosecutors from the Office\u2019s Money Laundering and Transnational Criminal Enterprises Unit found the entrepreneurs to be guilty of not implementing AML safeguards, including not fulfilling know-your-customer (KYC) obligations. <\/p>\n Despite the imminent possibility of serving jail time, owning up to the allegations resulted in Hayes being sentenced to a home confinement sentence that requires him to spend the first six months of his sentence from home. In addition, he also agreed to pay a fine of $10 million.<\/p>\n Related: <\/strong>Blockchain and crypto can be a boon for tracking financial crimes<\/em><\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n Busting the myth related to the ease of laundering money using crypto, a new analysis highlights the potential of blockchain technology and crypto to track down financial crimes. <\/p>\n While numerous projects within the crypto ecosystem were victims of targeted attacks, bad actors continue to struggle when it comes to cashing out the stolen funds.<\/p>\n Speaking to Cointelegraph, Dmytro Volkov, chief technology officer at crypto exchange CEX.IO, said that the notion of crypto being primarily used by criminals is outdated, adding:<\/p>\n \u201cIn the case of Bitcoin (BTC<\/a>), whose blockchain ledger is publicly available, a serious exchange with a competent analytics team can easily monitor and thwart hackers and launderers before the damage is done.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<\/div>\n![](\"https:\/\/s3.cointelegraph.com\/uploads\/2022-05\/fcbc5247-5c45-4d91-b1c3-232e14cf12f3.png\")
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