Former Binance CEO Changpeng Zhao was sentenced to 4 months in prison
On April 30 (US time), the sentencing hearing for former Binance CEO Changpeng Zhao (CZ) finally took place. For violating money laundering regulations, CZ was sentenced to 4 months in prison, many times lower than the level recommended by previous indictments.
During the sentencing hearing, Mr. Zhao once again apologized and wanted to accept responsibility "for his own mistakes."
Judge Richard Jones noted that Mr. Zhao voluntarily appeared before the US court, as well as had a clean record, and said that the former Binance CEO most likely will not repeat his crimes. Additionally, there is also no evidence that CZ was reported for violations during his time as CEO of Binance.
Mr. Zhao also previously paid a $50 million fine to US officials and agreed not to hold a management position at Binance for 3 years, but was still allowed to hold majority ownership in Binance.
In a post on Mr. Zhao said he will continue to be a cryptocurrency investor, while also promoting legal compliance. He also did not forget to emphasize that no Binance users were affected by the above legal scandals and their assets are still safe.
In general, this is a sentence that is not "expected" by the community, and is considered not too "harsh" for CZ. As previously, Yi He - the co-founder of Binance and who has a close relationship with Zhao - once revealed that CZ's situation in the US is "still fine". The 4-month sentence was also constantly mentioned by the crypto community on social networks because it coincided with the famous "number 4" meme that accompanied Mr. Zhao.
Some comments also praised CZ for the contributions he has made to the crypto industry, with the most significant achievement being that no Binance users suffered losses during the 2022 - 2023 downtrend period, unlike other companies that have collapsed. poured in such as FTX, Genesis, Celsius, BlockFi and Voyager.
Bloomberg points out that with a net worth of up to 40 billion USD at the present time, Changpeng Zhao will be the richest person ever sentenced to prison in the US.
With this verdict, the legal struggle between Binance and the US government has temporarily ended.
As Coin68 reported on November 22, 2023, Binance reached an agreement to end the investigation by the US Department of Justice and the US Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) targeting the platform. Accordingly, the exchange accepted to pay a record fine of up to 4.3 billion USD.
Even though he is far from his position at Binance, CZ is still the richest billionaire in the cryptocurrency industry in 2024, ranked 50th globally according to Forbes. He is also cherishing a new project called Giggle Academy.
BNB price has not fluctuated much around the latest news above, currently trading around 580 USD.
The cryptocurrency industry has recently witnessed many trials of notorious figures, including:
- Former FTX CEO Sam Bankman-Fried was sentenced to 25 years in prison for 7 counts of fraud and deceit leading to the collapse of the FTX exchange;
- Craig Wright denied claim to be Bitcoin founder Satoshi Nakamoto;
- Do Kwon and Terraform Labs were found guilty of making false statements about LUNA - UST to lure investors;
- Former Amazon programming engineer Shakeeb Ahmed was sentenced to 3 years and 3 months in prison for attacking 2 DeFi projects in 2022, causing $12 million in damage. This is also the first smart contract attack case to result in a conviction;
- Avraham Eisenberg, the hacker behind the attack on the DeFi project Mango Markets in October 2022, was convicted of fraud and manipulation and is facing a sentence of up to 20 years in prison.
Since CZ resigned, he pleaded guilty to negligence in preventing money laundering. Binance has a new CEO, Richard Teng, who has implemented enhanced KYC measures for US users and a series of other changes for the world's largest cryptocurrency exchange.
In a letter sent to U.S. District Judge for the Western District of Washington Richard A. Jones, Binance founder and former CEO Changpeng Zhao (CZ) apologized for his "poor decisions" and admitted " full responsibility" for his actions.
"There is no excuse for my failure to establish the necessary compliance controls at Binance," and assured that this would be the "only time" I would be exposed to with the criminal justice system."
Not stopping there, Mr. Zhao expressed his desire to support startup companies in the fields of biotechnology and education in the future.
In addition, the lawyer also sent the court 161 other letters asking to reduce the penalty for the former CEO of Binance, mainly from family members and friends. Prominent among them is the wish to receive "leniency" from the Law of Jessica Zhao's sister, Ms. Yi He - Binance's "powerful shadow" - and Changpeng Zhao's "secret" legal wife. .
CZ's older sister, Jessica Zhao, who is a former CEO at Wall Street giant Morgan Stanley, said, "although her brother made mistakes, he lived to do good for others." other". She cited the collapse of FTX as an example of how CZ always ensured Binance never misused customer funds.
The letter from Ms. Yi He - co-founder of Binance and mother of CZ's three children - frankly expressed her view that the cryptocurrency industry in the United States has never had clear management regulations, as a leader. In a field like Changpeng Zhao, running such a "huge" business is bound to encounter knowledge "blind spots" that are inevitable.
"If the cryptocurrency industry is compared to the Wild West, then CZ is the guardian of this wild land. As a founder who has never run a company of this scale , he will certainly encounter knowledge blind spots. Even the United States has not been able to make a decision on how to specifically manage and define this field.”
Notably in the list of 161 letters is the appearance of Ms. Yang Weiqing - the legal wife who on paper has 2 children with Mr. Zhao but has never appeared in the media - citing Changpeng Zhao's tolerance. while running the leading exchange Binance. She said Binance still donated tens of millions of yen to disaster areas in Japan in 2018, despite withdrawing from the Japanese market several months earlier.
In addition, there are letters sent from Changpeng Zhao's two children together with Yang Weiqing, Rachel and Ryan, both students at US universities, telling anecdotes about their father who always devoted himself to his work. love. Therefore, Ms. Yang Weiqing asked the Judge not to judge Mr. Changpeng Zhao "one-sidedly" by one mistake, but to recognize the positive things he did in general.
Another notable letter comes from Tigran Gambaryan, Binance's Director of Financial Crime Compliance and a former special agent for the US Treasury Department, who is currently being held in a Nigerian prison since February 2024 in a long-term dispute "drama" between Binance and the local government. The letter was written on January 1, 2024 before his arrest.
“I acknowledge CZ's past mistakes, but with integrity, I can attest that his business savvy and philanthropic actions have created a ripple effect, not just influence not only to Binance's business philosophy but also to positively impact the lives of many people globally."
Letters of support for Changpeng Zhao also came from:
· Former US Ambassador to China Max S. Baucus;
· Professor Jeremy R. Cooperstock of McGill University;
· Associate Professor Ronghui Gu of Columbia University;
· Sean Yang - CEO of Morgan Stanley;
· Members of the royal family in the United Arab
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