Binance's founder and former CEO, Changpeng "CZ" Zhao, should spend three years in prison for his part in helping the massive crypto exchange evade federal sanctions and money laundering laws, the US Department of Justice said Tuesday night.
Last month, DOJ attorneys filed a sentencing memo arguing he should spend 36 months in prison and pay a $50 million fine after he pleaded guilty to violating the Bank Secrecy Act in November. "The sentence in this case will not only send a message to Zhao but to the world. Zhao reaped a vast profit from his violations of U.S. law, and the cost of that violation must be high to effectively punish Zhao for his criminal acts and send a message to others," wrote prosecutors in the filing.
Zhao faced up to 18 months in jail according to the terms of his plea agreement. "The scope and ramifications of Zhao's misconduct were massive," the DOJ argued in its filing on Tuesday.
"This was, in part, because Zhao had failed to implement an effective Binance AML program at Binance, allowing for the proceeds of crimes, including through operation of mixing services that hid the source and ownership of the cryptocurrency, transacting in illicit proceeds from ransomware attacks, and moving proceeds of darknet market transactions, hacks by exchanges, or other internet-related scams," the filing said.
Much of the filing rehashes arguments made by the DOJ when it first announced charges against Binance and Zhao last year, pointing to how the exchange did business within the U.S.
The filing also walks through the DOJ's sentencing guidelines calculations, which suggest 12-18 months of sentencing. This was underscored by quoting Zhao as knowing that Binance was breaking the law and encouraging it.
The filing also took a shot at how the Sentencing Guidelines address Bank Secrecy Act violations, saying that they "are not designed to adequately punish either misconduct on this scale or misconduct that harms U.S. national security." Prosecution and Zhao defense had agreed to a $50 million fine, nevertheless. Zhao also waived his right of appeal to any sentence stretching up to 18 months.
He was originally set to be sentenced in late February, but the hearing was postponed by mutual agreement to April 30. Since he first appeared in federal court in Seattle, Washington, last year, he has not been able to return to Dubai, where he has a partner and some of his children live.
At the same time, the biggest crypto exchange in the world, Binance, has pleaded guilty to some of its charges and agreed to pay a mammoth fine of $4.3 billion, as well as reporting to a monitor who will be appointed by the court. The court has yet to appoint the said monitor.
Changpeng Zhao is about to find out if he will become the richest prisoner ever in the U.S. His situation is different from FTX’s, as he has friends on the company’s board, his ownership of the exchange is intact, and the mother of his child is helping run the thing.
JinseFinanceToday, it was his sense of responsibility that made him choose to face the trial, but he should never be considered the same as those evil murderers, robbers and fraudsters.
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SanyaNewly released court documents show that a judge rejected Changpeng Zhao's request to travel to the United Arab Emirates, despite Changpeng Zhao providing billions of dollars in shares as security.
JinseFinanceU.S. authorities have brought down the “King” of the crypto world, but the “Queen” remains.
JinseFinanceThe CFTC achieved a major legal triumph when the U.S. District Court granted approval for the settlement with Binance and its CEO.
ZoeyJudge of the Seattle District Court has reached an agreement with the prosecutor, believing that Binance's founder, Changpeng Zhao (CZ) should stay in the United States until February 23, 2024, as leaving the US would pose a risk of flight.
OliveA congressional committee in Brazil has taken a significant step by recommending potential indictments for four high-ranking officials connected to Binance, including CZ himself.
Kikyo
Coinlive SBF believes that CZ must be happy with how it turned out for FTX.
Beincrypto
