Australian bitcoin mogul remains at large after surrender of boss

By Sarah Danckert March 25, 2021

An Australian bitcoin mogul wanted in the US over allegations he conspired to break US banking and money laundering laws remains at large after the surrender of the group’s high profile founder and chief executive Arthur Hayes last week.

US lawyers for BitMEX senior employee Greg Dwyer confirmed he is yet to broker a deal to hand himself into US authorities which charged him and the three founders, including Mr Hayes, six months ago.

Last month, The Age and The Sydney Morning Herald revealed the 37-year-old maths whiz from the Sydney suburb of Gordon and graduate of the prestigious St Ignatius College, Riverview was at the centre of the biggest cryptocurrency scandal in the world.

Mr Dwyer and the three founders have also been named in a lawsuit in California that alleges BitMEX went to extraordinary lengths to avoid its own losses, including allegedly confiscating customers’ money, closing out customer positions and faking a hardware outage during a massive rout on the price of bitcoin in early 2020. The claimant, a BitMEX customer, is seeking $US50 million ($66 million) and the return of bitcoins worth $US5 million.

The US Department of Justice has accused Bermuda-based Mr Dwyer, Mr Hayes and the two other founders of the group Sam Reed and Ben Delo, of deliberately and wilfully breaching money laundering laws including knowingly accepting fake passports by traders from Iran, breaching US sanctions and allowing crime gangs to launder money through its platform. The four men face five years in jail if found guilty. Mr Reed and Mr Delo are on bail and have both pleaded not guilty to the charges.
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https://www.smh.com.au/business/mar...-after-surrender-of-boss-20210324-p57dpp.html

 

Empire is as empire does.

 

All they appeared to do was let some US traders trade.

Note that the US traders came from the 'Land of the Free'.

No money laundering, no fraud, just letting them trade.

And the US government wants to put them away. However, like any good mob, they'll probably just shake them down for a large payday.

Contrast this to what goes on everyday in the belly of the beast, Wall Street. Massive fraud, front running, market manipulation and billions laundered. Not many arrests there...

 

The possibility of a five year sentence isn't enough to go on the lamb. Now, if he were facing 25 years, then, yes, he should flee as long as he can. Hell, how long was John McAfee on the run?