The Block: BitMex's Greg Dwyer changes plea to guilty in criminal proceedings

Greg Dwyer, BitMex's former head of business development, has changed his plea to guilty in a criminal trial that alleged he violated the Bank Secrecy Act, court documents show.

“With this plea, this office has now obtained criminal convictions against all three founders, as well as a high-ranking employee at BitMex, for willful violations of anti-money laundering laws," said Damian Williams, US Attorney for the Southern District of New York.

In October of 2021, Dwyer pleaded not guilty during his arraignment. In February of this year a spokesman told the media that Dwyer was innocent, the charges were "baseless," and he planned to mount a "vigorous defense."

US regulators took the crypto derivatives exchange to task starting in October of 2020, when it charged the exchange and a number of its operators for skirting US regulations. Among those charged were co-founders Arthur Hayes, Ben Delo and Samuel Reed, in addition to Dwyer.

All the defendants pleaded not guilty at the start of their criminal trials, but Hayes, Delo and Reed entered a change of plea during their proceedings. All avoided jail time.

Now, Dwyer has followed their lead. Like the co-founders, he faces up to five years for allegedly breaching the Bank Secrecy Act. However, his trial had faced a longer time horizon as his legal team argued the Australia-native had less time to prepare for the charges since he had been focused on navigating extradition proceedings from Bermuda. Ultimately he was extradited.

His trial was slated for October of this year. Now that he has pleaded guilty, his sentencing will take place on November 10 at 4:30 p.m.

At their respective sentencings, Hayes received six months home detention as part of a two-year probationary period. Delo received 30 months probation without home confinement, and Reed received 18 months probation.

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