The co-founder and ex-CEO of the BitMEX crypto exchange Arthur Hayes has asked a court not to give him jail time for failing to create an anti-money-laundering network on the platform – and has claimed that he will not repeat his crimes. Hayes has also sought permission to live abroad and travel freely.
Bloomberg reported that Hayes’ legal team has filed a request for probation “with no home detention or community confinement” following a plea deal that will likely see him face a jail term of six to 12 months “under federal guidelines.”
The team was quoted as writing, in the document:
“This is a landmark case that has already had an extraordinary and well-publicized impact on Mr. Hayes’s personal life and on the BitMEX business that he co-founded.”
Earlier this year, Hayes pleaded guilty to charges of violating the United States Bank Secrecy Act, with prosecutors accusing him and other former BitMEX officials of allowing parties to conduct unchecked transactions on the exchange. Hayes has already agreed to pay a fine of USD 10m, as did his fellow co-founder Benjamin Delo and the exchange’s former Chief Technology Officer Samuel Reed.
Hayes’ legal team sent the Manhattan court a 65-page document including testimony from his mother, as well as “photographs and letters from supporters,” although prosecutors are yet to file their own sentencing recommendation.
The lawyers also argued that Hayes’ “conviction in the emerging area of finance and markets is a precedent the United States can use in the prosecution of financial crimes at cryptocurrency trading platforms around the world.”
They added that Hayes was “unlikely to be a repeat offender.”
Since returning from a long period spent under the radar, Hayes has recently reinvented himself as a crypto essayist. In a recent piece, the former BitMEX CEO predicted that a “doom loop” had been sparked by recent Western sanctions on Russia that would send bitcoin (BTC) prices up above the USD 1 million mark before the end of the current decade.
Source: Cryptonews
