Changpeng Zhao, the owner of the sizable Binance cryptocurrency exchange, was pardoned by US President Donald Trump for breaking American money-laundering laws.
White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt claimed in a statement on Thursday that Trump “exercised his constitutional authority by issuing a pardon for Mr. Zhao, who was a Biden Administration prosecutor in their cryptocurrency war.”
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Zhao expressed his deep gratitude for the pardon granted today in a post on social media platform X, and gratitude to President Trump for upholding the country’s commitment to justice, innovation, and fairness. He continued, “We will do everything we can to make America the home of crypto.”
After Binance admitted to having broken with an effective anti-money laundering program and owing a $4.3 million fine, Zhao, a billionaire and one of the most powerful figures in the crypto sector, stepped down as its CEO in 2023.
After serving a four-month sentence for breaking the Bank Secrecy Act, Zhao, a citizen of Canada who was born in China, was released from prison last year.
He was the first person ever to serve time in prison for violating US financial institutions’ “knowledge of their customers,” “to monitor transactions,” and “to file reports of suspicious activity.” No one has ever broken the law in the same way that Zhao has, according to the prosecution.
The president has a lot of authority under the US Constitution, including power to commutate sentences or pardons to overturn federal criminal convictions. Presidents have traditionally used these powers up until the end of their terms, but this is not required.
Zhao claimed to have never spoken to the president and that he had applied for a pardon from the Trump administration in May.
The most recent pardon that Trump has issued to crypto executives and entrepreneurs as well as others who have been found guilty of white-collar crimes is Zhao’s.
Although Zhao’s specifics are yet to be made public, the pardon may allow him to resume the company he co-founded in 2017. As the US crypto market booms under the Trump administration, it might also be a good thing for Binance to grow there.
In his second term as president, the Republican president pledged to reverse former president Joe Biden’s policies, which had targeted crypto companies for fraud and illegal finance violations. In 2024, the president’s second term received support from the crypto industry.
Trump also pardoned the three BitMEX co-founders, who had admitted guilt in 2022 for implementing a Bank Secrecy Act-compliant anti-money laundering program.
He also commuted the sentence of the executive of the now-defunct startup Ozy Media and pardoned the founder of the electric truck company Nikola for his role in the company’s fraud conviction.
Source: Aljazeera
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