Digitex Futures CEO Faces Charges Over Bank Secrecy Act Violation
According to Cointelegraph: Adam Colin Todd, CEO of the Digitex Futures exchange, has been indicted by the United States Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of Florida for violating the Bank Secrecy Act (BSA). The indictment, issued on February 12, accuses Todd specifically of failing to establish and implement an adequate Anti-Money Laundering (AML) program, including the necessary Know Your Customer (KYC) program. According to the accusation, Todd operated an unregistered futures platform from January 2018 to April 2022 and willfully neglected to set up required AML measures. Because of this failure, it's suspected that the platform was open to misuse for money laundering and other illicit activities. The indictment further notes that Todd publicly refused to implement KYC policies for Digitex Futures, which could result in a sentence of up to five years if convicted. The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) Miami investigated the case, led by Assistant U.S. Attorney Trevor Jones. Todd's violation of the BSA, a crucial law in combating financial crimes, is considered a serious offense. The Act compels financial institutions to retain records and report certain transactions to the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN). This latest charge against Todd follows a prior fine of $16 million imposed by U.S. federal court in mid-2021, for Todd's failure to register the futures exchange with the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC). In addition to this violation, the CFTC also accused Digitex of manipulating the price of its native DGTX token. Consequently, Todd and four companies under his control were banned from trading in any CFTC-regulated markets and required to pay a $3,912,220 disgorgement and an $11,736,660 civil monetary penalty.