blockworks.co
US President Donald Trump has issued a full pardon to Changpeng Zhao, the founder and former chief executive of Binance.
Zhao, widely known as “CZ,” pleaded guilty in 2023 to violations of U.S. anti-money-laundering laws and was serving a four-month prison sentence following a $4.3 billion settlement between Binance and the U.S. Department of Justice.
The Wall Street Journal first reported the news.
The pardon removes all remaining legal penalties against Zhao, who had stepped down from Binance as part of the plea deal, according to the report.
White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt told the WSJ that Trump had “exercised his constitutional authority by issuing a pardon for Zhao, who was prosecuted by the Biden Administration in their war on cryptocurrency.
“The Biden Administration’s war on crypto is over.”
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