President Donald Trump on Thursday pardoned Binance founder Changpeng Zhao (pictured in 2022), who pleaded guilty to money laundering charges in 2023 and spent four months in prison. File Photo by Miguel A. Lopes/EPA
Oct. 23 (UPI) — President Donald Trump has pardoned Binance cryptocurrency exchange founder Changpeng Zhao, who had pleaded guilty to money laundering charges in 2023.
The guilty plea was part of a $4.3 billion settlement between Binance and the Justice Department to end the investigation into the world’s largest cryptocurrency exchange, CBS News reported.
Binance paid the settlement after the DOJ determined it helped users to get around federal sanctions.
The settlement required Zhao to resign from his position as Binance’s chief executive officer and serve four months in prison.
The Binance settlement also caused the Philippines to order Google and Apple to remove the Binance app from their respective app offerings.
White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said Zhao’s plea deal and the investigation against Binance arose from what she called the Biden administration’s “war on cryptocurrency,” as reported by The Hill.
“In their desire to punish the cryptocurrency industry, the Biden administration pursued Mr. Zhao despite no allegations of fraud or identifiable victims,” Leavitt said in a prepared statement.
“The Biden administration sought to imprison Mr. Zhao for three years, a sentence so outside sentencing guidelines that even the judge said he had never heard of this in his 30-year career,” Leavitt added.
“These actions by the Biden administration severely damaged the United States’ reputation as a global leader in technology and innovation.”
The president issued the pardon in accordance with his constitutional authority, she said, adding that “the Biden administration’s war on crypto is over.”
In a social media post in which he identified himself as “CZ,” Zhao thanked the president “for upholding America’s commitment to fairness, innovation and justice” by pardoning him.
He said he will “help make America the capital of crypto” and help make decentralized web3 Internet technology available globally.
Zhao’s pardon came after a news report indicated that Binance assists the Trump family with its cryptocurrency endeavor.
The Wall Street Journal two months ago reported that a cryptocurrency venture created by the Trump family has accrued $4.5 billion with the help of Binance since the president won the Nov. 5 election, according to CNBC.