US President Donald Trump said he pardoned Binance founder Changpeng “CZ” Zhao after lobbying and the support of “plenty of people” who told him he was not guilty.
CZ's pardon was signed on Wednesday and Binance confirmed the president's order to Cointelegraph in a press release.
During a press conference on Thursday, Trump said he decided to pardon the Binance founder because he “got here beneficial by plenty of people,” had plenty of support, and “people say he's guilty of nothing.”
“I don't know him, I don't think I've ever met him, but I used to be told that he had plenty of support and so they said that what he did wasn't even against the law, it wasn't against the law, he was being prosecuted by the Biden administration.”
The actions of previous governments under the microscope
Zhao was sentenced to 4 months in prison after pleading guilty to 1 count of violating the U.S. Bank Secrecy Act for failing to keep up an efficient anti-money laundering program at Binance.
CZ's crypto lawyer Teresa Goody Guillén said Thursday the pardon was the best decision because her client “has a single allegation of lack of an efficient compliance program. NO fraud, NO victims, NO criminal record. NO money laundering.”
Source: Teresa Goody Guillén
“CZ is the primary and only known first-time offender in U.S. history to be sentenced to prison for this single, non-fraud-related charge,” she said.
“The judge found NO evidence that he knew of any illegal transactions and that he could reasonably imagine that there have been no illegal funds on the platform.”
CZ is able to get back to work
After the pardon, CZ reached out to X and said he was “deeply grateful” and would “do every thing we will to make America the cryptocurrency capital and advance Web3 worldwide.”
As a part of his plea cope with authorities, CZ was forced to resign as CEO of Binance and banned from working on the exchange. A pardon could allow him to return to Binance.
