Trump pardons BitMEX co-founders, including Arthur Hayes: report

U.S. President Donald Trump pardoned three co-founders of the BitMEX cryptocurrency exchange, according to CNBC.

"The co-founders, Arthur Hayes, Benjamin Delo and Samuel Reed, previously pled guilty to a range of federal criminal charges related to money laundering and failure to police the exchange," the report said on Friday, adding that prosecutors had accused the co-founders of using BitMEX as a "money laundering platform" and that withdrawing from the U.S. market was "a sham."

Trump issued the pardons on Thursday, CNBC said.

Earlier this year, the Bitcoin derivatives exchange was slapped with an additional $100 million fine after wrapping up a multi-year legal battle related to anti-money laundering violations. Last July, BitMEX pleaded guilty to violating the Bank Secrecy Act . Prosecutors said the exchange "willfully" failed to establish, implement and maintain an adequate anti-money laundering program between 2015 and 2020.

A month ago CoinDesk reported , citing anonymous sources, that BitMEX was looking for a buyer and employed the independent investment bank Broadhaven Capital Partners to facilitate the sale.

Trump crypto pardons

Presidential pardons — whether true, possible or possibly imagined — involving people well connected to crypto have been grabbing headlines ever since Trump took office.

First, Trump pardoned Ross Ulbricht , the Silk Road creator integrally tied to Bitcoin’s early history. Then, separate reports surfaced, some saying the family of disgraced former FTX executive Sam Bankman-Fried was campaigning for a presidential pardon, while others alleged Binance's founder and former CEO Changpeng Zhao had also asked for a pardon.

Zhao quickly denied that he pushed the Trump administration for a pardon.

All of the above have coincided with Trump and his inner circle broadening their influence over and exposure to crypto. Most recently, the Trump-backed DeFi project said it plans to launch a USD-pegged stablecoin.