BMA LLC, formerly known as Bitcoin Manipulation Abatement has filed a lawsuit against Bitmex exchange in the US District court for the northern district of California.
The lawsuit accuses HDR global trading, the parent company of Bitmex Exchange for illicit money transfers, money laundering, wire fraud, interstate transport of stolen property and violations of the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act. The lawsuit alleges that Bitmex failed to secure a money transmitter licence from the U.S. and has been conducting transactions worth 3 billion dollars daily from the US based office in San Francisco.
Since it’s not a recognized money transmitter this makes such funds illicit. The lawsuit also alleged that Bitmex was involved in market manipulation which earned them billions of dollars in illicit profits. BMA alleges that Bitmex trades against customers, ties its futures indices to illiquid spot market and uses technical glitches as a staged act in order to liquidate its users and traders.
One example of this technical glitches happened on the 19th of May 2020 where the site had gone on maintenance in the middle of people’s trade.