DeutschUS President Donald Trump pardons Binance founder Changpeng Zhao. CZ served four months in a US prison last year. A court previously convicted him of money laundering and sanctions violations. Thanks to the President’s amnesty, the programmer is no longer considered a criminal.
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US President Donald Trump Pardons Binance Founder CZ
US President Donald Trump pardoned Binance founder Changpeng Zhao (known as CZ) yesterday. The crypto entrepreneur is one of hundreds of people whose sentences the 79-year-old president considers unlawful.
By July 23, Trump had already pardoned more than 1,600 people. Most recently, he had granted amnesty to another series of people – including CZ. In an interview, the US President initially seemed unable to make much of the Chinese programmer’s name.
“Today you have granted amnesty to the founder of Binance. Can you explain why you pardoned him and whether it has anything to do with his involvement in your family’s business?” a journalist asked.
“Which one? Who is that?” Trump initially asked. Even as “CZ”, the president did not recognize the entrepreneur. Finally, Trump was able to remember him as a “crypto person”.
“I think we’re talking about the same person, because I pardon a lot of people. I don’t know. He was recommended by many people. (…) Many people say he is not guilty at all.”
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Trump then reacted angrily to an interjection from the journalist. “You don’t know much about crypto. You don’t know anything. You are fake news.”
CZ enjoys great support among his advisors. His persecution during the Biden administration had political reasons, Trump implies. He personally does not know Zhao and has never met him.
The question surrounding a business involvement between the Trump family and CZ alludes to agreements between the Binance founder and the company World Liberty Financial (WLFI), which is majority-owned by the Trumps. CZ is said to have financed it.
According to the WSJ, CZ worked primarily with Zach Witkoff, who runs WLFI’s day-to-day business. Witkoff is said to be a personal friend of Zhao. He recently came into focus in a crypto scandal surrounding Trump after massive insider trading was discovered.
CZ thanked X for the pardon. He now wants to do everything he can to turn the United States into the global crypto center.
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Why Was Changpeng Zhao Convicted in the USA?
The 48-year-old Chinese native Changpeng Zhao was sentenced in April 2024 by a US court to a four-month prison sentence, which he has already served. CZ has been free since September 2024.
US authorities accused Zhao at the time of deliberately disregarding regulatory requirements on Binance. Accordingly, it was possible for users to circumvent sanctions via Binance. The crypto exchange also benefited from money laundering. CZ knew about this but tolerated the criminal actors in order not to jeopardize Binance’s role as the most popular crypto exchange.
More than 1.5 million unauthorized transactions are said to have been processed via Binance over the years. The company paid a fine of four billion US dollars for this. CZ, who was acting as managing director of Binance.com at the time, paid 50 million US dollars from his personal property.
In order to comply with deviating regulatory requirements in the USA, Binance founded the Binance.US branch in 2019. CZ was convicted for violations of this trading platform, although he did not officially hold the management position and the company, according to its own statements, operated independently of Binance.com. The US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) claims to have recognized that CZ was in fact managing both companies, but publicly presented it differently.
Zhao illegally granted influential figures from the USA access to Binance.com. The crypto exchange failed to register as a money transfer service provider in the USA. During the court hearings, the Binance founder pleaded guilty to the charge of conspiracy to commit money laundering.
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