"Biden's war on crypto is over": Donald Trump pardons Binance founder
Binance founder Changpeng Zhao, imprisoned for money laundering, has been pardoned by the US President, who attacked his predecessor.
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One year after the founder and former CEO of the cryptocurrency exchange Binance, Changpeng Zhao – also known as CZ – completed a four-month prison sentence, US President Donald Trump has pardoned him. Numerous US media outlets report this in agreement, citing the White House. The legal proceedings by the justice department were described there as part of the previous administration's fight against cryptocurrencies. The proceedings had damaged the United States' reputation as a global leader in technology and innovation, quotes Politico: "The Biden Administration’s war on crypto is over." According to reports, the Canadian has recently been lobbying heavily for the pardon.
Money laundering via Binance
At the conviction a year and a half ago the US federal district court in Seattle (USA v Changpeng Zhao, file no. 2:23-cr-00179) relied on Zhao's confession, according to which money laundering was carried out via Binance and he knowingly accepted illegal money flows. Transactions related to child sexual exploitation, illegal drug trafficking, and terrorism were carried out via his cryptocurrency exchange. He had deliberately tried to cover up traces of these transactions by instructing employees to communicate with such customers in the US only by phone. He also circumvented sanctions laws. Because the court believed that Zhao could become criminally active again in the future, the verdict was intended to have a deterrent effect.
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Zhao, who ranks 21st on Forbes' list of the world's richest people with an estimated fortune of about 85 billion US dollars, had to pay a fine of 50 million dollars in addition to serving the four-month prison sentence. In addition, Binance paid a penalty of 4.32 billion dollars, to which the company had already agreed in a settlement beforehand. Before the verdict was announced, Zhao apologized and expressed remorse. After Trump took office, the US Securities and Exchange Commission ( SEC) Â dropped proceedings against Binance; as the next major provider, the platform benefited from the new US government's crypto-friendly course.
(mho)
