OKX’s Legal Exodus: Melissa Muehlfeld Exits After the DOJ Debacle

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What You Should Probably Know (If You’re Into Legal Drama):

  • The firm’s global general counsel, Melissa Muehlfeld, left the exchange.
  • OKX recently replaced its chief legal officer, Mauricio Beugelmans, and head of compliance, Vanessa Zhang.
  • Muehlfeld joined OKcoin in May of 2022 as deputy general counsel and was promoted to global general counsel of OKX in August 2024.

Well, here we are again, folks—another day, another legal head rolling at OKX. This time, it’s the global general counsel, Melissa Muehlfeld, packing her bags. After playing a nice little game of musical chairs, it appears that the firm’s legal and compliance departments are in desperate need of some new blood (or maybe just new policies).

In case you missed the thrilling drama of 2022, Muehlfeld made her grand entrance at OKcoin as deputy general counsel. Flash forward to August 2024, she was swiftly promoted to the big leagues—global general counsel of OKX. Clearly, OKX doesn’t believe in small steps, only giant leaps into the deep end.

But hey, not all was smooth sailing for OKX. The company, in a truly breathtaking move, dropped half a billion dollars to settle charges with the U.S. Department of Justice back in February. Since then, they’ve been on a roll, booting top legal and compliance people left and right, like they’re clearing out their closet. First up: Chief legal officer, Mauricio Beugelmans. Then, head of compliance, Vanessa Zhang. A regular ol’ legal spring cleaning!

But fear not! In the aftermath of these departures, OKX recruited Linda Lacewell—formerly the big cheese at the New York Department of Financial Services (NYDFS)—to take over as CLO. Word on the street is that she’s busy “restructuring” things. Restructuring, huh? Wonder what that really means. Maybe it’s just a fancy word for “let’s start over again.”

And don’t even think about getting an official statement from OKX on the matter. A spokesperson had this to say: “As a matter of company policy, we do not comment on all people that join and/or depart the company.” In other words, they’d rather keep you guessing. Isn’t that just delightful?

As for Muehlfeld, she’s gone radio silent, not responding to any comment requests. One can only imagine what’s going on in her head right now, but hey—she probably needs a good vacation after all this chaos. Who wouldn’t?

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2025-05-28 00:21