Changpeng Zhao, former chief executive officer of Binance, arrives at federal court in Seattle, Washington, US, on Tuesday, April 30, 2024.
David Ryder | Bloomberg | Getty Images
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 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.”
“President Trump exercised his constitutional authority by issuing a pardon for Mr. Zhao, who was prosecuted by the Biden Administration in their war on cryptocurrency,” White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt said in a statement.
“In their desire to punish the cryptocurrency industry, the Biden Administration pursued Mr. Zhao despite no allegations of fraud or identifiable victims,” Leavitt said.
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.
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.
He was sentenced in April 2024 to just four months in jail.
Federal prosecutors had asked a judge to sentence Zhao to three years in prison.
Leavitt noted that request in her statement on Thursday about Zhao’s pardon.
“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 said.
“These actions by the Biden Administration severely damaged the United States’ reputation as a global leader in technology and innovation,” she said. “The Biden Administration’s war on crypto is over.”
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