Ben Delo, the Oxford graduate who became Britain's youngest self-made billionaire at 34 through the cryptocurrency exchange BitMEX, is facing renewed scrutiny over the business that made his fortune, after an investigation raised troubling questions about how the platform operated.
The Bureau of Investigative Journalism examined US court records relating to the prosecution of BitMEX, building on earlier reporting about the exchange. The documents show that prosecutors described Delo's decisions as turning the platform into a magnet for money laundering and criminal activity.
According to the prosecution's case, BitMEX processed trillions of dollars of transactions for customers who, for much of the period, were required to provide nothing more than an email address. No real name or other advanced verification is required, the website trumpeted. The FBI said the company deliberately kept these requirements loose in order to drive up revenue, and that Delo personally intervened to help customers dodge restrictions on US trading.
BitMEX generated more than $1.3 billion in revenue during the five years covered by its criminal case, with prosecutors describing Delo as a critical organiser and leader of what they called the criminal decision not to install the required safeguards.
Delo pleaded guilty to one offence under the Bank Secrecy Act. Other allegations, including fraud, were disputed by Delo and BitMEX and were never tested at trial. Delo himself has described his offence as a spurious blip.
The scrutiny comes as Delo has stepped into the political spotlight, handing Reform UK £36 million to become the biggest donor in British political history. The Observer has separately reported that the UK financial regulator warned in March 2020 that BitMEX was not authorised in Britain and was suspected of targeting consumers, and that one of the company's founders described the aim of the business as targeting individual crypto investors, whom he called degenerate gamblers.
A new legal action focusing on the crypto crash of March 12, 2020, known as Black Thursday, when bitcoin plunged nearly 40 per cent, was filed against BitMEX in the US courts in September. The action examines how the exchange emerged from the crash virtually unscathed, with an estimated $12.3 billion of trades in a single day. The company denies any wrongdoing, dismissing the complaint as false and opportunistic.
The exchange, which for years generated huge fees, is proposed to close, marking the end of one of the most controversial chapters in crypto history.