[Qasaur]

I hope I'm not the only one that finds this completely ridiculous. What right does the U.S. Federal Government have to prosecute people who aren't even operating within their jurisdiction? This is nothing but imperialism and a captured government trying to shut down competitors to U.S.-based regulated exchanges from more crypto-friendly countries.

[ciarannolan]

> What right does the U.S. Federal Government have to prosecute people who aren't even operating within their jurisdiction?

Besides the office in Manhattan, I'm sure you mean?

https://www.justice.gov/usao-sdny/press-release/file/1323316...

Page 8.

[vmception]

captured government lmao

this is pretty default behavior for the US

everything anyone told you about the US dollar use being needed to establish jurisdiction was a lie, I have literally only heard that from crypto people, arent these the same people that used to say “litecoin is asic proof because its memory hard” lmao

right, not new news.

The criminal charges are around the Bank Secrecy Act and Conspiracy to circumvent some Bank Secrecy Act requirements

What right? Its not a right its a privilege the US has that most countries around the world will listen to it. Many countries have laws to exercise jurisdiction outside of their borders, they’re just irrelevant. They are irrelevant markets, irrelevant geopolitically, have no resources to pursue or even bother charging people, faces actual consequences from trading partners if they did try, everything is distinctly opposite for the US.

[ciarannolan]

They had an office in Manhattan and customers in the US.

https://www.justice.gov/usao-sdny/press-release/file/1323316... (Page 8)

[vmception]

> But please, expand on the "America bad" argument you were making. Very interesting stuff.

It wasn't an America bad argument, it was a global hegemony acknowledgement.

How do you read me talking about how almost everywhere is literally "irrelevant", my words, by all metrics and get an "America bad" argument out of it?

Could have just left that out.

[ciarannolan]

I removed it from my comment (probably as you were writing) because you're right, it's lame and doesn't belong on HN. My apologies.

[dragonwriter]

> What right does the U.S. Federal Government have to prosecute people who aren't even operating within their jurisdiction?

The jurisdiction of any sovereign state is whatever that state says it's jurisdiction is; extraterritorial jurisdiction is not at all uncommon.

In order for an entity to have externally-imposed limits on its jurisdiction, it would have to be answerable to a superior soveriegnty (which would itself either be or be answerable to, perhaps through more layers, an entity without such limitation.)

[roywiggins]

Jurisdiction here is easy: they had an office in Manhattan...

[roywiggins]

Ed: From the indictment, page 8: "BitMEX personnel... conducted BitMEX operations from an office in Manhattan, New York, including but not limited to customer support, business development, and marketing, involving customers located in the United States and elsewhere ."

If[0] they posted on American forums or solicited customers on American-hosted sites, they operated in the US for the purposes of the law. You don't have to physically be somewhere to be subject to the law there. Ditto wire and mail fraud that originates overseas.

Mailing a pipebomb from Canada to the US is illegal in Canada, but it's also illegal in the US, even if it was done by a Canadian citizen who didn't step foot here.

Operating outside American AML/KYC law is not quite the same as mailing a pipe bomb, but the jurisdictional issue is hard to distinguish.

[0] (this remains to be proven)

[csomar]

US imperialism is not new news.

[317070]

Apparently, they are of the opinion that Bitmex did operate in the US:

> With the opportunities and advantages of operating a financial institution in the United States comes the obligation for those businesses to do their part to help in driving out crime and corruption.

[roywiggins]

According to the indictment they had an office in Manhattan.

[splintercell]

America is the one world govt, it created this world order we live in, it provide(d) protection and unmolested trade routes to everyone in the world. Hell US even protected Vietnam's trade during the Vietnam War, no country in the world has done that in past.

Of course that world order is coming down fast because nobody in the US cares about maintaining it as much as they are interested in proclaiming it.

[bb88]

So that was the view of a pre-9/11 world. Post 9/11 we learned that terrorist organizations can plot and fund crimes against the US from overseas.

The best way to stop terrorists are with their funding. Stop the funding and they wither on the vine.