In the Northern District Court of California, another lawsuit has been filed against BitMEX and its founders. Bucharest resident Paun Gabriel-Razvan accuses the cryptocurrency derivatives exchange of market manipulation and money laundering.
Defendants named include HDR Global Trading Limited, Arthur Hayes, Ben Delo, Samuel Reed and other individuals.
In a new 197-page filing, it is claimed that the defendants ignored Know Your Customer (KYC) and anti-money laundering (AML) policies. They allegedly engaged in activities that generated “billions of dollars of illicit proceeds”.
On October 16, similar accusations against them were brought by Moscow resident Dmitry Dolgov.
The documents contain similar formulations: both plaintiffs accused the exchange of taking money “from anyone” and cited the same example of how BitMEX profited from illicit actions. Each allegedly sustained “substantial damages”.
The plaintiffs’ interests are represented by attorney Pavel Pogodin of Consensus Law. A BitMEX spokesperson in a comment to The Block described the lawsuits as unfounded.
“Pogodin, in his actions, resembles a patent troll who files identical claims against us based on altered information from the internet,” BitMEX said.
They intend to resolve the matter in court.
BitMEX Ravzan Complaint as Filed by ForkLog on Scribd
On October 1, the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) filed a lawsuit against BitMEX and its owners. They accused them of operating an unregistered trading platform and violating CFTC rules regarding KYC/AML procedures.
The U.S. Department of Justice charged the exchange leadership with violations of the Bank Secrecy Act.
The head of the exchange Arthur Hayes was arrested, but a few days later was released on a $5 million bond. He and Samuel Reed left their posts.
Earlier, Consensus Law stated in additional filings to the suit that the exchange’s leadership had withdrawn more than $400 million from the company’s accounts once they learned of the ongoing investigation.
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