 ▲ Binance CEO, Changpeng Zhao ©Coin Leaders |
Zhao Changpeng, founder of Binance, the world's largest cryptocurrency exchange, was sentenced to four months in prison on charges of money laundering.
On the 30th (local time), according to the
Previously, U.S. prosecutors had asked the court to sentence Zhao Changpeng to three years in prison in a court document submitted to the Western Washington Federal Court in Seattle late on the afternoon of the 23rd (local time).
Zhao Changpeng has been under investigation by U.S. authorities since 2020 on charges of money laundering, violation of financial sanctions, and fraud, and was indicted in November last year.
He pleaded guilty to charges of violating the Bank Secrecy Act (BS) and the International Emergency Economic Powers Act (IEEPA), which regulate money laundering.
Accordingly, he agreed with the U.S. government to pay a fine worth 4.3 billion dollars (about 5.5 trillion won) and also resigned from his position as CEO of Binance.
Among his charges were brokering transactions with users in sanctioned areas, including North Korea, Iran, Syria, and Ukraine's Crimean Peninsula.
Binance is also being investigated by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) on charges of mishandling customer assets and operating an illegal, unregistered exchange in the United States.
Meanwhile, Fox Business reporter Eleanor Terrett asked former Binance CSO Patrick Hillmann about his opinion on Zhao Changpeng's four-month prison sentence through “It’s a fair outcome that balances the mistakes Feng made early on and the turning point in Binance’s compliance efforts over the past few years, and I’m glad he was able to put this behind him through his time in prison.”
