BIT Mining Settles for $10M Over Bribery Allegations in Japan Resort License Bid

In a settlement with US authorities, BIT Mining agreed to pay $10 million in penalties associated to bribery allegations involving Japanese authorities officers to safe a resort license. The corporate, which operates within the Bitcoin mining sector, admitted to violating the International Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA) by conspiring to pay bribes and falsifying information.

As a part of the decision, BIT Mining entered right into a three-year deferred prosecution settlement (DPA) with the US Justice Division and the SEC. The previous CEO Zhengming Pan additionally faces indictment on a number of expenses, together with conspiracy and violations of anti-bribery provisions of the FCPA.

The official press launch revealed that BIT Mining’s then-CEO and different workers paid round $1.9 million in bribes in money, journey, leisure, and items to Japanese officers via intermediaries between 2017 and 2019.

The objective was to safe a bid for an built-in resort in Japan. Pan engaged third-party consultants to facilitate and conceal the bribes, which have been disguised as professional enterprise bills like administration advisory charges. Regardless of these efforts, the corporate finally misplaced the bid for the resort venture.

In a statement, US Lawyer Philip R. Sellinger for the District of New Jersey stated,

“Paying bribes to international authorities officers is a severe crime. The highest management of BIT Mining, then generally known as 500.com, directed consultants to pay bribes to Japanese authorities officers to win a bid to open a big resort in Japan. The unlawful scheme began on the high, with the corporate’s CEO allegedly totally concerned in directing the illicit funds and the next efforts to hide them.”

As a part of its Deferred Prosecution Settlement (DPA), BIT Mining had initially agreed to pay a $54 million legal penalty based mostly on the nation’s sentencing pointers. Nevertheless, as a consequence of its monetary challenges, the corporate and the Justice Division agreed to cut back the penalty to $10 million.

Moreover, BIT Mining will obtain a credit score of as much as $4 million in opposition to the civil penalty it has agreed to pay to the SEC as a part of a separate investigation.