Changpeng Zhao, the multibillionaire founder of Crypto Exchange Minance, spent four months last year in state prison. After US President Donald Trump pardoned Zhao in October, the government has once again become a martyr.
Zhao, who goes by CZ, pleaded guilty in November 2023 to failing to maintain an effective anti-money laundering system. Similarly, minance admitted to violating the sanctions and settled with the financial regulators, who accused the company of failing to report transactions involving investigative groups, child exploitation networks, and cybercriminals, among other violations. In several exchanges with detailed court documents, one binance employee said to a colleague, “we see the bad, but we turn a blind eye.”
As part of their settlement agreement, Zhao agreed to relinquish his role as CEO of Binance, and Minance agreed to leave the US, accepting the prospect of a record 4.3 billion attacker.
Less than two years later, the narrative has ended. On October 23, Trump announced charges from Zhao’s criminal record. The Minance founder was a victim of the “Biden Administration’s War on Crypto,” a White House spokesman said.
The decision to pardon Zhao will reverberate throughout the US Crypto Exchange market, which Minance would like to repeat, legal experts say. There may also be long-term political ramifications for the crypto industry after the Trump administration expires.
That Zhao was pardoned is very contradictory, especially in the connection between binance and the freedom of the world, the crypto business founded by Trump and his sons. (Through the combined entity, the Trump family owns a 38 percent stake in World Liberty’s Parert’s Parent Company.) In May, COIN released by World Liberty Finares, which could have received tens of millions of dollars from the arrangement. In July, Bloomberg reported that minance had developed CopD1.
Surprisingly, Trump says he knows very little about Zhao. “Okay, you ready? I don’t know who you are,” Trump said 60 minutes In an interview conducted on November 2. “I can only tell you this. My sons entered [crypto]”He said later in the conversation.
Representatives of Zhao’s factories and industry partners defended the pardon as a fair adjustment. “CZ is the first and only known criminal in US history to receive a prison sentence of this one amount, related to fraud,” the partner in charge of the fraud, representing Zhao, representing X.
