Changpeng Zhao, the multi-billionaire founder of the Binance cryptocurrency exchange, spent four months locked up in a federal prison last year. After U.S. President Donald Trump pardoned Zhao in October, the government declared him a martyr.
Zhao, who represents CZ, pleaded guilty in November 2023 to Binance’s failure to implement an effective anti-money laundering program. At the same time, Binance admitted violating US sanctions and settled accounts with the financial supervision authorities that did so. accused the company for failing to report suspicious transactions involving, among others, terrorist groups, child exploitation networks and cybercriminals. In a particularly damning exchange described in court documents, one Binance employee he told his friend“We see evil, but we close our eyes.”
As part of Zhao’s respective settlements Agreement resign from his role as CEO of Binance and Binance Agreement leave the U.S., accept supervision from a U.S.-appointed compliance monitor and pay a record $4.3 billion fine.
Less than two years later, the narrative has reversed. October 23 Trump made charges from Zhao’s criminal record. The founder of Binance was a victim of the Biden administration’s “war on cryptocurrencies,” a White House spokesman said.
The decision to pardon Zhao will have wide reverberations throughout the U.S. cryptocurrency exchange market, which Binance may seek to re-enter, legal experts say. This could also have long-term political consequences for the cryptocurrency industry after the end of Trump’s presidency.
Whether Zhao’s pardon was justified has been hotly debated, especially in delicate of the ties between Binance and World Liberty Financial, the crypto company founded by Trump and his sons. (Via corporate entity, the Trump family owns 38% of the shares in parent company World Liberty Financial.) In May, Binance agreed to receive a $2 billion investment denominated in $1, a coin issued by World Liberty Financial, that could earn tens of millions of dollars from the deal. Bloomberg in July reported that Binance has developed the codebase for USD1.
Interestingly, Trump claims to know very little about Zhao. “OK, are you ready? I don’t know who he is” – Trump he said 60 minutes in an interview broadcast on November 2: “All I can tell you is that my sons are fascinated by it [crypto]– he said later in the interview.
Legal representatives of Zhao i industry allies they defended the pardon as a just correction. “CZ is the first and only known first-time offender in U.S. history to be sentenced to prison on this single, non-fraud charge,” wrote Teresa Goody Guillén, a partner at the law firm Baker & Hostetler, which represents Zhao, in Post X.