President Donald Trump pardoned Changpeng Zhao, the convicted founder of crypto exchange Binance, on Wednesday following months of efforts by Zhao to boost the Trump family’s own crypto company, according to people familiar with the matter cited by The Wall Street Journal.
Trump recently indicated to advisers that he was sympathetic to arguments of political persecution related to Zhao and others, one person said.
Zhao pleaded guilty in November 2023 to failing to maintain an effective anti-money laundering program at Binance, resulting in his resignation as CEO and a $50 million fine.
Binance itself was fined $4.3 billion as part of the settlement, one of the largest corporate penalties in U.S. history. U.S. District Judge Richard Jones sentenced Zhao to four months in prison in April 2024, far lighter than the 36 months sought by the Department of Justice.
The pardon follows intense discussions within the White House that reportedly “ramped up” in October, with financial journalist Charles Gasparino reporting that “people close” to Zhao said Trump “is leaning toward a pardon” despite concerns about optics given the president’s business interests in crypto.
Many Trump insiders believed “the fraud case against Changpeng Zhao, known in the digital space simply as CZ, was pretty weak, and certainly not something that merited a felony charge and jail time.“
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