DBT Bureau
Bengaluru, 30 April
Binance Founder Changpeng Zhao is facing a potential three-year jail term in the US after pleading guilty last year to violating money laundering laws and sanctions in the North American nation.
Earlier this month, lawyers of the Justice Department had recommended a three-year jail sentence for Zhao, which they had alleged would hold him accountable for his intentional criminal conduct.
In response, Zhao’s lawyers have requested five months’ probation. They have pleaded that the crypto billionaire had accepted responsibility for the money laundering violations and has already been away from his family for more than five months.
Zhao and his company Binance pleaded guilty to violating anti-money laundering, unlicensed money transmitting, and sanctions laws in November 2023. After the
In November last year, Binance and Zhao pleaded guilty to violating anti-money laundering, unlicensed money transmitting, and sanctions laws. Post this event, Zhao, a dual citizen of UAE and Canada, was released on a $175 million bond but was ordered to remain in the US.
Binance is the largest cryptocurrency exchange in terms of daily trading volume of cryptocurrencies. The platform has been accused of not maintaining an effective anti-money laundering programme. It was also allegedly accused that sanctions violations linked to investors in Iran, Cuba, Syria, and Russian-occupied areas of Ukraine had also happened when he was at the helm of affairs.
Zhao is the second high-profile crypto executive facing sentencing by the US authorities. Last month, former crypto billionaire Sam Bankman-Fried was sentenced to 25 years in prison in an $11 billion fraud case, which was linked to the collapse of his company FTX.
