The U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) and lawyers for Changpeng Zhao, the founder and former CEO of Binance, the world’s largest cryptocurrency exchange, presented starkly contrasting sentencing recommendations in recent filings, with the DOJ calling for three years in prison.
Prosecutors are seeking a three-year prison sentence along with a $50 million fine for Zhao, arguing his leadership enabled Binance to violate federal sanctions and money laundering laws. Zhao’s defense team countered, urging probation, citing the fine paid and the former Binance CEO’s “extraordinary acceptance of responsibility.”
Zhao pleaded guilty to violating the Bank Secrecy Act last November, and the DOJ argues that the seriousness of his crimes justifies exceeding the 18-month sentence outlined in the plea agreement.
In their filing, they emphasize “the scope and ramifications of Zhao’s misconduct,” which they say facilitated illicit actors including darknet market operators and ransomware attackers over the lack of an effective anti-money laundering program at the exchange.
The defense disputes the extent of Zhao’s knowledge, maintaining he was never “explicitly informed” of specific transactions on the exchange with criminal funds. They argue that although a conversation was cited in which Binance’s Chief Compliance Officer warned Zhao about users from sanctioned countries, as a non-U.S. company, Binance was not obligated to restrict users from these countries.
They further downplay the significance of any sanctions violations, claiming they constituted a minuscule portion of Binance’s overall volume, which makes it “inconceivable that Mr. Zhao acted knowingly and deliberately to bring them about.”
Binance, the world’s largest cryptocurrency exchange, pleaded guilty to related charges last year, agreeing to a massive $4.3 billion fine and court-appointed monitoring, with the monitor yet to be appointed.
- SEO Powered Content & PR Distribution. Get Amplified Today.
- PlatoData.Network Vertical Generative Ai. Empower Yourself. Access Here.
- PlatoAiStream. Web3 Intelligence. Knowledge Amplified. Access Here.
- PlatoESG. Carbon, CleanTech, Energy, Environment, Solar, Waste Management. Access Here.
- PlatoHealth. Biotech and Clinical Trials Intelligence. Access Here.
- Source: https://www.cryptocompare.com/email-updates/daily/2024/apr/24/
- :not
- 2024
- 24
- 7
- a
- About
- acceptance
- Act
- actors
- agreeing
- Agreement
- along
- Although
- an
- and
- anti-money laundering
- any
- appointed
- April
- April 2024
- ARE
- argue
- Argues
- AS
- At
- Bank
- bank secrecy act
- BE
- Billion
- binance
- bring
- calling
- ceo
- Changpeng
- Changpeng Zhao
- charges
- chief
- cited
- claiming
- COM
- company
- compliance
- Conversation
- countries
- Crimes
- Criminal
- crypto
- crypto roundup
- CryptoCompare
- cryptocurrency
- Cryptocurrency Exchange
- Darknet
- darknet market
- Defense
- Department
- department of justice
- Department of Justice (DoJ)
- disputes
- DoJ
- Effective
- emphasize
- enabled
- exceeding
- exchange
- extent
- facilitated
- Federal
- Filing
- filings
- fine
- For
- Former
- former ceo
- founder
- from
- funds
- further
- guilty
- he
- his
- HTTPS
- illicit
- in
- Including
- IT
- Justice
- knowingly
- knowledge
- Lack
- largest
- Last
- Last Year
- Laundering
- Laws
- Lawyers
- Leadership
- Maintaining
- MAKES
- Market
- massive
- million
- money
- Money Laundering
- Monitor
- monitoring
- mr
- never
- November
- of
- Officer
- on
- operators
- outlined
- over
- overall
- paid
- plato
- Plato Data Intelligence
- PlatoData
- plea
- portion
- presented
- prison
- Program
- ramifications
- ransomware
- recent
- recommendations
- related
- responsibility
- restrict
- roundup
- s
- Sanctioned
- Sanctions
- say
- scope
- seeking
- sentence
- significance
- specific
- team
- that
- The
- the world
- their
- Them
- These
- they
- three
- to
- Transactions
- u.s.
- U.S. Department of Justice
- urging
- users
- Violating
- Violations
- volume
- warned
- was
- which
- with
- world
- world’s
- year
- years
- yet
- zephyrnet
- Zhao
