The founder of the world's largest crypto currency exchange Binance, Changpeng Zhao (alternatively: Zhao Changpeng), has been given a four-month sentence in the United States, for breaching the country's anti-money laundering laws.
US prosecutors had sought a 36-month sentence for Zhao, who also received a US$50 million fine. Zhao is estimated to have a US$43 billion fortune.
In November last year, Zhao who is also known as CZ, pleaded guilty to United States charges of money laundering. The US Department of Justice said Zhao violated the Banking Secrecy Act "by wilfully causing Binance Holdings Limited to fail to implement and maintain an effective AML [anti-money laundering] program" and other infarctions.
Zhao resigned as the chief executive of Binance after the guilty plea.
Cayman Islands registered Binance is said to have facilitated nearly US$900 million worth of transactions between US and Iranian users, and millions of dollars between Americans and Syrians, as well as in parts of Russia-occuped Ukraine.
Binance is also said to have transferred some US$106 million in Bitcoin from the exchange to wallets used by the Hydra online market place for criminals.
The crypto currency exchange operates a New Zealand branch, which is a member of BlockchainNZ and FintechNZ, with a parent company registered in Ireland.
In April 2023, Binance New Zealand said it had 260,000 registered users in the country, all of which were local residents.
Zhao's sentencing follows that of Sam Bankman-Fried who co-founded crypto exchange FTX and was sent to prison for 25 years and US$11 billion in forfeiture, for orchestrating what US authorities said was one of the largest financial frauds in history.
3 Comments
4 months (maybe 3 with good behavior discount) in a white collar criminal prison working on his backhand on the courts and catching up on reading might just be what CZ needs.
Alternatively he might be able to swing a deal like Jeffery Epstein and only spend evenings at prison and daytime at his own office.
Interestingly, even after the DOJ went after CZ, Binance's registration for the Japan market was not turned away (previously it was), but it seems the Japan FSA has still not granted Binance a license.
Key word "light" another one for that sentence would be non-existent. Lockdowns would and have been longer and for many they did not get to go outside, go out of a small room with limited natural light.
So another word for that sentence would be "joke"
In America money talks, justice walks...trump will probably get off his 91 criminal charges as well...just the way it is in America...almost as bad as NZ...
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