NEW YORK, Dec 14 (Reuters) –
Charges brought by U.S. prosecutors against Sam
Bankman-Fried, the founder of cryptocurrency exchange FTX,
on Tuesday
were among the highest-profile brought against a crypto
player. It was the latest in a string of cases involving digital
assets that U.S. regulators and prosecutors have been looking
into.
Here is a summary of some of those civil and criminal
cases, and their outcomes:
BITFINEX HACK
The U.S. Justice Department in February charged a
husband-and-wife team on charges of conspiring to launder
119,754 bitcoin stolen after a hacker broke into digital
currency exchange Bitfinex in 2016 and initiated more than 2,000
unauthorized transactions. The pair are in talks with
prosecutors about a possible plea, court records show.
BITMEX EMPLOYEES
Employees of BitMEX, including the cryptocurrency exchange’s
founders, pleaded guilty this year to willfully failing to
establish, implement and maintain programs to prevent money
laundering. The firm’s cofounders pleaded guilty in federal
court in New York and each agreed to pay a $10 million criminal
fine.
Another of the firm’s employees also pleaded guilty, and
agreed to a $150,000 fine.
Federal prosecutors originally brought the criminal charges
in 2020.
In 2021, the exchange agreed to pay a civil penalty to
settle separate charges from the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading
Commission and the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN)
unit of the U.S. Treasury Department.
A BitMEX spokesperson this week declined to comment on the
charges against its former employees.
At the time the case was settled with the CFTC and FinCEN,
the firm’s chief executive officer emphasized its robust
compliance and anti-money laundering capabilities.
BLOCKFI LENDING LLC
A subsidiary of crypto firm…
