Trump pardons convicted cryptocurrency CEO

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – U.S. President Donald Trump has pardoned Changpeng Zhao, the convicted founder of cryptocurrency exchange Binance, the White House said on Thursday, in Trump’s latest move to boost the cryptocurrency industry and erase his past misdeeds.

Zhao, a billionaire known as “CZ” who is one of the most influential figures in the cryptocurrency world, resigned in 2023 as head of Binance after the company pleaded guilty to failing to maintain an effective anti-money laundering program and paid a $4.3 billion fine.

Zhao was prosecuted by the Biden administration “in its war on cryptocurrencies,” White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said in a statement.

Since returning to office, Trump’s family has reaped millions of dollars from a variety of crypto companies, moves criticized by political rivals and ethics experts citing the potential for conflicts of interest. The White House has denied those claims and on Thursday Leavitt said he had carefully reviewed all pardons.

In a post on social media platform He added: “We will do everything we can to help make the United States the capital of cryptocurrencies.”

FULL AND UNCONDITIONAL FORGIVENESS

US authorities said in 2023 that Binance had failed to report suspicious transactions with organizations such as Hamas and Al Qaeda and with websites dedicated to selling child sexual abuse materials.

Zhao, a Canadian citizen who was born in China, personally paid a $50 million fine and served nearly four months in prison last year after pleading guilty to the same charge as his company.

However, he maintained his stake in Binance, while one of his appointees was named CEO.

“I made mistakes and I must take responsibility,” Zhao said when he resigned.

The full and unconditional pardon could pave the way for him to return to the business he co-founded in 2017. It may also offer Binance the opportunity to expand in the United States as the cryptocurrency industry prospers under the Trump administration.

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A spokesperson for Binance, the world’s largest cryptocurrency exchange by trading volume, thanked Trump for his leadership.

News of the pardon, which Zhao told a podcaster in May he had been seeking, was first reported by the Wall Street Journal.

The U.S. Constitution gives the president broad power to grant pardons to vacate federal criminal convictions or commutations to modify sentences. Historically, presidents have largely waited until the end of their terms to use those powers, but there is no requirement for them to do so.

During his second term, Trump has made extensive use of his clemency powers and Zhao’s is the latest in a series of pardons Trump has granted to cryptocurrency executives and entrepreneurs, as well as others convicted of white-collar crimes.

The cryptocurrency sector poured money into Trump’s 2024 presidential campaign, during which the Republican candidate promised to end what he called a crackdown by the Biden administration on the industry.

SUPPORT FOR GLOBAL FINANCIAL FREEDOM

Binance itself offered support this year to one of the Trump family’s crypto companies, World Liberty Financial.

In May, Binance accepted World Liberty’s $1 stablecoin as payment for a $2 billion investment in the exchange by Abu Dhabi investment firm MGX. Binance’s decision to accept $1, which launched just in March, provided a huge boost to the World Liberty company, and it still accounts for the majority of the $1 in circulation.

Democratic US Senator Elizabeth Warren, who previously criticized the MGX deal, said on Thursday: “First, Changpeng Zhao pleaded guilty to a criminal charge of money laundering. Then he boosted one of Donald Trump’s crypto companies and pushed for a pardon. Today, Donald Trump did his part and pardoned him.”

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A Binance spokesperson declined to comment on Warren’s criticism.

In March, the president pardoned three co-founders of the BitMEX cryptocurrency exchange who had pleaded guilty in 2022 for failing to implement an anti-money laundering program that complied with the Bank Secrecy Act.

Trump also pardoned Ross Ulbricht in January, who was sentenced to life in prison for running the underground online marketplace Silk Road, but remained a popular figure within the crypto community.

Outside of cryptocurrencies, Trump pardoned the founder of electric truck company Nikola, who was found guilty of fraud, and commuted the sentence of the executive behind the now-defunct startup Ozy Media.

On his first day back in office, Trump pardoned approximately 1,500 people charged in the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol.

(Reporting by Gram Slattery and Chris Prentice; additional reporting by Luc Cohen and Hannah Lang in New York; writing by Tom Wilson; editing by Rami Ayyub, Doina Chiacu, Michelle Price and Daniel Wallis)