Adam Todd, the founder and CEO of Digitex Futures Exchange, faces charges in a United States federal court for allegedly violating the Bank Secrecy Act by failing to establish and implement an Anti-Money Laundering (AML) program.
The Bank Secrecy Act (BSA) is a crucial tool in combating financial crimes, requiring financial institutions to establish AML programs to maintain records and report certain transactions to the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN).
The charges against Todd were announced by the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of Florida on February 12. The investigation was conducted by the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) Miami, with Assistant U.S. Attorney Trevor Jones prosecuting the case.
The prosecution alleges that Todd failed to implement an AML program for Digitex Futures, potentially facilitating money laundering and other illicit activities on the platform. It is claimed that Todd operated an unregistered futures platform from January 2018 to April 2022 and deliberately neglected to establish an adequate AML program, including a Know Your Customer (KYC) program.
Todd appeared in court following the indictment. If convicted, he could face a maximum sentence of five years in jail.
This indictment follows a previous ruling by a U.S. federal court that ordered Todd to pay $16 million for failing to register Digitex Futures Exchange with the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC). The CFTC also accused Digitex of price manipulation involving its native DGTX token. As part of the judgment, Todd and associated entities were prohibited from trading in CFTC-regulated markets and were required to pay disgorgement and civil monetary penalties totaling nearly $4 million and almost $12 million, respectively.
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