The hire comes after BitMEX's founders were charged with failing to
prevent money laundering and operating an unregistered trading platform
illegally in the United States.
The operator of crypto
derivatives exchange BitMEX, 100x Group, has hired a seasoned Anti-Money
Laundering (AML) specialist, Malcolm Wright, as its chief compliance
officer.
In an announcement
on Oct. 12, the 100x emphasized Wright's profile as the current
chairman of the Advisory Council and AML Working Group at Global Digital
Finance, and as a speaker covering key topics that include the
Financial Action Task Force's Recommendations for Virtual Asset Service Providers.
100X Group had last week reshuffled its top leadership,
removing BitMEX's co-founders Arthur Hayes, Samuel Reed and Ben Delo
from executive roles. Hayes, Reed and Delo were all charged in a civil
enforcement action from the United States Commodity Futures Trading
Commission for operating an unregistered trading platform in the U.S.
and violating AML regulations.
The Department of Justice has, in parallel, pressed criminal charges
against the co-founders, as well as their colleague, Geoff Dwyer, who
has subsequently taken a leave of absence from his role as head of
business development.
Without explicit reference to the recent
charges, 100x Group has officially said that "Malcolm’s appointment is a
noteworthy milestone for us as we move towards completion of our User
Verification Programme and further enhance our compliance function."
Wright's LinkedIn profile indicates
he has spent almost two and a half years at Global Finance, in parallel
to his roles as an advisory board member for London-based Commercial
Passport KYC and as associate fellow at the Royal United Services
Institute, which contributes to policy debates on financial crimes. He
is also the founder of the Financial Crime Compliance advisory and a
former chief compliance officer at Diginex and EQUOS.
100x Group
faces a steep challenge in rehabilitating the exchange's image.
Commentators claim the charges against the BitMEX team have cast their shadow on the wider industry and could trigger a regulatory backlash against the crypto space.
source link: https://cointelegraph.com/news/bitmex-operator-hires-chief-compliance-officer-amid-us-criminal-charges
