Changpeng Zhao, founder and until recently CEO of Binance, has been sentenced to four months in prison in the United States. Under Zhao’s leadership, Binance had too few measures to combat money laundering. Zhao admitted his guilt at the end of last year.
Zhao “put Binance’s growth and profits before US law,” the judge said, according to The Verge. The violations enabled nearly $900 million in prohibited transactions and allowed Iranian, Cuban and Syrian customers to make transactions on the crypto platform despite sanctions banning such transactions.
The sentence is considerably lower than the prosecutor’s demand; he demanded a prison sentence of three years, twice as high as what is normally prescribed for these violations. The prosecutor found that the scale and consequences of Zhao’s violations were “gigantic,” causing “significant damage” to the national security of the United States. Zhao’s lawyers again argued that the CEO should not receive a prison sentence, because previous suspects in similar cases did not receive one either.
The founder of the crypto trading platform resigned from the company in November as part of a settlement. He will also pay a fine of fifty million euros. Zhao previously indicated that he would not appeal against an imposed prison sentence of less than 18 months.
Tags: Binance founder months prison violating antimoney laundering law Pro News
