Binance founder is sentenced to 4 months in prison on money-laundering violations | CNN Business (2024)
Changpeng Zhao arrives at federal court in Seattle on Tuesday.
New YorkCNN —
Changpeng Zhao, the founder of the world’s leading cryptocurrency exchange, was sentenced on Tuesday to four months in prison after pleading guilty last year to charges that he failed to maintain an effective anti-money laundering program.
The sentence, handed down ina US federal court in Seattle, is far lighter than the three years prosecutors had argued for.
Prior to the sentencing hearing Tuesday, Zhao, who goes by CZ, apologized for mistakes he made as CEO of Binance, the crypto exchange he founded in 2017.
“Words cannot explain how deeply I regret my choices that result in me being before the Court,” he said in a letter to the judge. “Rest assured that it will never happen again.”
Binance agreed to pay more than $4 billion in fines and other penalties as part of a coordinated settlement with the federal government last fall. The company admitted to engaging in anti-money laundering activities, unlicensed money transmitting and sanctions violations.
Zhao, who is 47 and has a personal fortune of nearly $40 billion, according to Bloomberg, agreed to step down as CEO and pay $200 million in fines.
Following a multiyear investigation, US authorities in November said Binance — the world’s largest crypto exchange — allowed bad actors on the platform, enabling transactions linked to child sex abuse, narcotics and terrorist financing.
Further, Binance did not have protocols to flag or report transactions for money-laundering risks, and employees were well aware that such an oversight would invite criminals to the platform. According to court documents, one Binance compliance staffer wrote:“We need a banner ‘is washing drug money too hard these days - come to binance we got cake for you.’”
Zhao’s sentencing comes just over a month after his former rival, Sam Bankman-Fried, was sentenced to 25 years in federal prison for his role in a yearslong, multibillion-dollar fraud through FTX, which was the second largest exchange crypto exchange before its sudden collapse in the fall of 2022.
The back-to-back sentencings underscore a harder line the Department of Justice has taken against financial crimes broadly and crypto in particular.
Crypto investors and businesses have been keen to shake the industry’s reputation as a financial system for criminals and pivot toward the mainstream.
But crypto skeptics tend to view the entire $2 trillion industry with suspicion and say the DOJ hasn’t done nearly enough to combat it.
”‘Crime pays’ is the message sent today” by the Justice Department, Dennis Kelleher, CEO of the nonprofit Better Markets, said in statement Tuesday. “It didn’t even charge CZ with money laundering; he was only charged with not having an anti-money laundering program. That’s less than a slap on the wrist.”
Clarification: This story has been updated to more fully describe the charges against Zhao.
Changpeng Zhao (Chinese: 赵长鹏; pinyin: Zhào Chángpéng), commonly known as CZ, is a Chinese-born Canadian businessman. Zhao is the co-founder and former CEO of Binance, the world's largest cryptocurrency exchange by trading volume as of July 2024.
, the founder of the world's leading cryptocurrency exchange, was sentenced on Tuesday to four months in prison after pleading guilty last year to charges that he failed to maintain an effective anti-money laundering program.
Changpeng Zhao, the former head of the world's largest cryptocurrency trading company, was sentenced to four months in jail on Tuesday in a Seattle courtroom. Zhao pleaded guilty late last year to money-laundering violations and stepped down as CEO of Binance. The company itself was fined $4.3bn.
Changpeng Zhao, the former CEO of Binance, has started a four-month prison sentence in Lompoc, California, for not preventing money laundering on the exchange. Zhao pleaded guilty and received a lighter sentence than prosecutors had sought. He also agreed to pay a $50 million fine.
Binance founder Changpeng Zhao was sentenced to four months in prison for violations of the Bank Secrecy Act during his time at the crypto exchange. The Department of Justice (DOJ) sought a three-year prison sentence, while CZ's lawyers requested probation instead.
A federal judge on Tuesday sentenced former Binance CEO Changpeng Zhao to four months in prison for failing to wall off the world's largest digital asset exchange from money launderers, allowing it to become a hub for illicit finance.
Binance has a notorious reputation for allowing actors to use its exchange for various money laundering schemes, terrorist financing, and other illicit activities.
According to Bloomberg Billionaires Index, Zhao was ranked the 69th-richest person in the world, and richest Canadian overall, with a net worth estimated at $37.3 billion as of May 2024.
Binance's Changpeng Zhao Clings To Multibillion-Dollar Fortune After Guilty Plea. Changpeng Zhao became crypto's richest person while evading sanctions laws. His pleading guilty to money laundering charges is unlikely to change that–at least for now.
Investors withdrew as much as $3 billion from Binance on Tuesday, according to blockchain analytics firm Nansen, as a deluge of negative headlines about the cryptocurrency industry rattled users of the world's largest exchange.
The ownership structure of Coinbase Global (COIN) stock is a mix of institutional, retail and individual investors. Approximately 45.64% of the company's stock is owned by Institutional Investors, 10.07% is owned by Insiders and 44.30% is owned by Public Companies and Individual Investors.
Binance's billionaire founder Changpeng Zhao was sentenced to four months in prison on Tuesday, after pleading guilty to charges of enabling money laundering at his crypto exchange.
Binance is the world's leading cryptocurrency exchange by trading volume. It has over 150 million registered users, and, on average, its 24-hour trading volume is over $25.20 billion (March 2024). In addition, the Binance trading platform has the lowest fees in the crypto market.
Binance founder Changpeng Zhao sentenced to 4 months in prison for allowing money laundering. SEATTLE (AP) — Binance founder Changpeng Zhao was sentenced Tuesday to four months in prison for allowing rampant money laundering on the world's largest cryptocurrency exchange.
The bulk of a Securities and Exchange Commission lawsuit against Binance, the world's largest crypto exchange, and its co-founder Changpeng “CZ” Zhao can proceed, a US judge ruled.
CZ's upward revision has two components. First, his 90% equity stake in Binance, the large crypto exchange, is valued at $33 billion despite CZ stepping down as CEO in November 2023 as part of a settlement with the U.S. Department of Justice in which he pled guilty to anti-money laundering and sanctions violations.
Anyone convicted of money laundering could be sentenced to up to 20 years of incarceration and fines of up to $500,000 or twice the value of the property that was involved in the transaction, whichever amount is greater.
Charles Agbu, 58, of Carson, Calif., pleaded guilty before U.S. District Judge George Wu in the Central District of California to one count of conspiracy to commit health care fraud and one count of money laundering.
If charged as a felony, penalties for violating PC 186.10 include: A fine of up to $250,000 or twice the amount of money that was laundered (whichever amount is greater) Up to four years in jail under California's realignment program.
One of the most infamous and shocking money laundering scandals of all time and one of the largest ever uncovered the Danske Bank Money Laundering Scandal occurred when €800 billion of suspicious transactions from countries such as Russia, Latvia, and Estonia via an Estonian branch of the Copenhagen based bank between ...
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