- President Donald Trump pardoned Binance founder Changpeng Zhao.
- Zhao, who is widely known as CZ, had pleaded guilty in 2023 to enabling money laundering while CEO of the huge cryptocurrency exchange.
- Zhao's plea was part of a $4.3 billion settlement Binance reached with the DOJ in 2023.
- Sen. Elizabeth Warren, a Massachusetts Democrat, blasted the pardon, calling it an example of "corruption."
Quoting:
President Donald Trump has pardoned Binance founder Changpeng Zhao, who had previously pleaded guilty to enabling money laundering while heading the cryptocurrency exchange, the White House said Thursday.
The pardon of Zhao, widely known as CZ, came two months after The Wall Street Journal reported that the Trump family's own crypto venture, which has generated about $4.5 billion since the 2024 election, has been helped by "a partnership with an under-the-radar trading platform quietly administered by Binance."
[...] Trump's pardon of Zhao came nearly a week after he commuted the 87-month prison sentence of former New York Rep. George Santos, who had pleaded guilty to wire fraud and aggravated identity theft.
[...] Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., blasted the pardon, calling it an example of "corruption."
"First, Changpeng Zhao pleaded guilty to a criminal money laundering charge," said Warren, who is the ranking member of the Senate Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs Committee.
"Then he boosted one of Donald Trump's crypto ventures and lobbied for a pardon," she said.
"Today, Donald Trump did his part and pardoned him. If Congress does not stop this kind of corruption in pending market structure legislation, it owns this lawlessness."
Zhao, in November 2023, pleaded guilty in Seattle federal court and agreed to step down as Binance CEO as part of a $4.3 billion settlement by the company with the Department of Justice.
Zhao had been charged with violating the Bank Secrecy Act for failing to "implement an effective anti-money-laundering program and for willfully violating U.S. economic sanctions "in a deliberate and calculated effort to profit from the U.S. market without implementing controls required by U.S. law," the DOJ said.
Binance had been charged with conducting an unlicensed money-transmitting business, violating the International Emergency Powers Act and conspiracy.
Federal prosecutors had asked a judge to sentence Zhao to three years in prison.
Santos, a crook, but a Republican one; Zhao, looks as if there's a Trumpian quid pro quo.
Trump acts shamefully without any feeling of shame. His MO, as it seems to me.
Even JD wouldn't pull shit like that, would he? Might he? If Trump leaves anyone for JD, which is an open question.
UPDATE: PBS News further reports:
[... Zhao] has deep ties to World Liberty Financial, a crypto venture that the Republican president and his sons Eric and Donald Jr. launched in September.
Trump’s most recent financial disclosure report reveals he made more than $57 million last year from World Liberty Financial, which has launched USD1, a stablecoin pegged at a 1-to-1 ratio to the U.S. dollar.
World Liberty Financial also recently announced that an investment fund in the United Arab Emirates would be using $2 billion worth of USD1 to purchase a stake in Binance. Zhao also has publicly said that he had asked Trump for a pardon that could nullify his conviction.
Zhao out of the jug, Emirates pony up big-time cash into Trump family's crypto adventure, using the purchased crypto to buy into Binance. Interbreeding causes gene damage.
The pardon caps a monthslong effort by Zhao, a billionaire commonly known as CZ in the crypto world and one of the biggest names in the industry. He and Binance have been key supporters of some of the Trump family’s crypto enterprises.
“Deeply grateful for today’s pardon and to President Trump for upholding America’s commitment to fairness, innovation, and justice,” Zhao said on social media Thursday.
If there's no smell from all that apparent to you, have a Covid test. The Trumps launched their crypto thing in September, now, the following month, Zhao gets sprung from all effects of conviction via the pardon, after helping the Trump-family adventure, and the Emirates buy into Binance with Trump-family coin, after buying it from the Trump-family venture, so - Don't Worry, Be Happy? All that big-money stuff put together in one month! Things move fast if motivation to complete something exists. And Stephen Miller got no cut of anything. Maybe that's why deportations move more slowly. Less Motivation.
Fuck 'em. All of 'em. Each and every one of 'em. MAGA chumps too, for making it all possible. Chumps for Trump.