WASHINGTON − President Donald Trump has granted pardons to three founders of the BitMEX cryptocurrency exchange, according to a source familiar with the clemency.
The co-founders – Arthur Hayes, Benjamin Delo and Samuel Reed – previously pleaded guilty in 2022 to a variety of charges for flouting money laundering rules and failing to police the exchange. Trump signed the pardons Thursday without publicizing the action.
Representations of cryptocurrencies are seen in this illustration, on Aug.10, 2022.
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BitMEX was fined $100 million in January for violating the Bank Secrecy Act by willfully failing to establish, implement, and maintain an adequate anti-money laundering and know-your-customer program.
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Trump pardons three founders of BitMEX cryptocurrency exchange