The United States Department of Justice is reportedly seeking a 36-month prison sentence for Binance founder and former CEO Changpeng Zhao, or “CZ.”
US prosecutors are said to be seeking a potential 3-year prison sentence for Changpeng Zhao, who is the founder Binance, the world’s largest digital currency exchange. This is according to a recent filing dated April 23, 2024.
The Department of Justice noted:
“Zhao’s willful violation of U.S. law was no accident or oversight. He made a business decision that violating U.S. law was the best way to attract users, build his company, and line his pockets. The United States recommends that the Court impose an above-Guidelines sentence of 36 months of imprisonment.”
Back in November of last year, Zhao had pleaded guilty in the United States to engaging in illegal activities / anti-money laundering and even applicable sanctions violations.
The crypto billionaire, who has a net worth of well over $10 billion at the time of writing, had agreed to pay a $50 million penalty.
Zhao had also stepped down from his role as CEO at Binance.
Since that time, Zhao has maintained a low profile and has only publicly announced a few initiatives, with one of them being an NFT-focused education project that would not be a profit / revenue-generating venture.
As widely reported, Binance had also agreed to pay a massive $4.3 billion fine in one of the biggest corporate settlements ever.
Although CZ’s sentencing is to be announced in April 30, 2024, the Binance founder is currently out on bail. This, after obtaining his release with a $175 million bond.
Previously, a US Judge had rejected CZ’s request to travel to Dubai (because he may pose a significant flight risk).
As covered, Binance appointed Richard Teng as its new CEO following CZ’s resignation.
During the past few years, Binance has received numerous warnings and has been the target of a wide range of enforcement actions by regulators across the globe. Due to these issues, Binance’s services are not very accessible for consumers. The exchange had been aggressively expanding its operations during 2017 and 2018, but it has been forced to scale back its business in multiple jurisdictions mainly due to issues to related to non-compliance.
Meanwhile, Binance competitors such as Coinbase, which still has considerably lower trading volumes than Binance, have been able to maintain and extend operations across many countries and continents. While Coinbase has also faced its share of legal challenges, particularly with the US SEC, the exchange operator has been able to grow more responsibly than most of its rivals.
