The United States Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) filed a civil enforcement action against three individuals who allegedly own and operate the derivatives exchange BitMEX - Arthur Hayes (CEO of BitMEX), as well as Ben Delo and Samuel Reed (CTO of BitMEX). The commission believes that BitMEX has illegally offered leveraged trading services to retail traders to the tune of $1 trillion since its inception in 2014 and the exchange failed to take “the most basic compliance procedures.” These include failure to register with the commission and the lack of Know Your Customer and Anti-Money Laundering procedures. Quoting the FBI Assistant Director William Sweeney: "One defendant went as far as to brag the company incorporated in a jurisdiction outside the U.S. because bribing regulators in that jurisdiction cost just ‘a coconut.’ Thanks to the diligent work of our agents (the defendants) will soon learn the price of their alleged crimes will not be paid with tropical fruit, but rather could result in fines, restitution, and federal prison time." In addition to civil charges, the U.S. attorney for the District of New York indicted Hayes, Delo, Reed and Gregory Dwyer, BitMEX's head of business development, for violating and conspiring to violate the Bank Secrecy Act. If convicted, the executives could face a maximum of five years in prison and a $250,000 fine. According to data from CoinMetrics, In the 24 hours since the CFTC’s announcement, a total of 48,400 BTC was withdrawn from the exchange. *Meme courtesy of LBRY-Digest, image & text source: Bloomberg Finance / trustnodes, cointelegraph.*