By Matthew Russell Lee, Patreon
BBC - Guardian UK - Honduras - ESPN
SDNY COURTHOUSE, Jan 20 – Four executives of the Bitcoin Mercantile Exchange or BitMEX are criminal defendants for violations of the Bank Secrecy Act.
On October 13 U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York Judge John G. Koeltlt held a proceeding. Inner City Press covered it.
The complaint says the defendants "deliberately failed to implement BSA-Compliant AML and KYC programs at BitMEX."
They have demanded a bill of particulars, and the government has opposed it. Judge Koeltl on October 13 gave the defendants until October 22 to reply to DOJ's opposition.
On October 20, after initially being stopped from entering the SDNY Magistrates Court (even while the overflow room 15A was locked), Inner City Press managed to enter and witness the telephone presentment of defendant Gregory Dwyer, by phone - from JFK airport, as it happened.
Dwyer's lawyers had written in request the airport phone presentment so as to avoid a night of incarceration (to which others on October 20 were confined, in non white collar cases).
Magistrate Judge Robert W. Lehrburger could be heard speaking into the phone, but the other side's responses could not be, even in the courtroom. But the conditions of release were announced by Judge Lehrburger, including ultimately freedom to travel to Bermuda.
On January 20, 2022 Judge Koeltl ruled, among other things, that Hayes' quote about bribing officials in the Seychelles with a coconut will not come into evidence, as too inflammatory. From the January 20 rulings, the prosecution may be in trouble. For more, in the run-up to the trial that Inner City Press will cover along with many other now unblocked trials. Here's the video from Taipei, Hayes v. Nouriel Roubini, here (from Minute 10: Andrew Neil asks, How much are you paying to bribe the Seychelles authorities? Hayes says, "A coconut.")
Soon after the January 20 conference, the defendants submitted for signature a revised subpoena to the CFTC, about the March 1, 2016 CFTC letter about ICBIT and a June 26, 2018 meeting with Hayes and Sullivan & Cromwell.
The trial is set for March 30: "ORDER as to Arthur Hayes, Benjamin Delo, Samuel Reed. Trial in this matter is adjourned to Wednesday, March 30, 2022, at 9:00am (Jury Trial set for 3/30/2022 at 09:00 AM before Judge John G. Koeltl.) (Signed by Judge John G. Koeltl on 12/7/21)."
The case is overall case is US v. Hayes, et al., 20-cr-500 (Koeltl)
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