Changpeng “CZ” Zhao, founder and former CEO of Binance, confirmed on a podcast that he has formally utilized for a presidential pardon from Donald Trump—lower than a yr after serving a four-month sentence in a U.S. federal jail.
Zhao shared the replace on an episode of the Farohk Radio podcast, stating that his authorized group submitted the appliance two weeks earlier.
“I’ve acquired attorneys making use of. We solely submitted after the Bloomberg article and the Wall Road Journal article got here out,” he stated, referring to March protection that reported he was in search of a pardon whereas participating in crypto enterprise offers involving Trump household allies. “And I used to be like, properly, if they’re writing this text, we’d as properly formally apply.”
On the time, Zhao publicly rejected components of these tales, calling them inaccurate and denied any lively enterprise negotiations involving Binance U.S.
Zhao was sentenced in April 2024 after pleading responsible the yr earlier than to failing to take care of an efficient anti-money laundering program at Binance, on the time the world’s largest cryptocurrency alternate by buying and selling quantity.
Alongside his jail time period, Zhao paid a $50 million advantageous. Binance itself paid $4.3 billion in what grew to become one of many largest company settlements in U.S. historical past. He was launched in September final yr.
Trump has already pardoned different high-profile figures within the crypto area. These include Silk Street founder Ross Ulbricht and BitMEX’s co-founders as his administration introduced on a extra crypto-friendly regulatory surroundings.
Throughout the podcast, CZ additionally revealed he wasn’t invested in Donald Trump’s official memecoin TRUMP.Earlier this week, Zhao revealed he suggested Kyrgyzstan on utilizing BTC and BNB because the preliminary cryptocurrencies for a possible Nationwide Crypto Reserve.
