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Was CZ’s Pardon Bought? His Lawyer Says Media Got It Wrong

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Changpeng “CZ” Zhao’s lawyer Teresa Goody Guillén is pushing again in opposition to mounting allegations of corruption surrounding the previous Binance CEO’s presidential pardon, calling media stories about pay-to-play preparations “false statements” constructed on “elementary misunderstandings” of blockchain expertise and enterprise operations.

The pardon, granted by President Donald Trump in October following CZ’s responsible plea to anti-money laundering violations, has triggered fierce political backlash from Democratic lawmakers who declare monetary ties between Binance and Trump’s household crypto enterprise influenced the choice.

CZ Never Should Have Been Prosecuted, Lawyer Argues

Guillén defended the pardon throughout a current Pomp Podcast interview, asserting CZ confronted unprecedented therapy in comparison with executives at conventional monetary establishments charged with related compliance failures.

She emphasised that no different CEO has been prosecuted for these particular violations regardless of main banks going through similar or extra severe costs.

“He was pardoned as a result of he by no means ought to have been prosecuted within the first place,” Guillén acknowledged, noting the case concerned no fraud, no victims, and no felony historical past.

She attributed the prosecution to the earlier administration’s “struggle on crypto,” suggesting regulators focused Binance and CZ as high-profile examples following the FTX collapse.

The former Binance chief pleaded guilty in November 2023 to failing to take care of ample anti-money laundering packages.

Binance paid over $4.3 billion in settlements, whereas CZ personally paid $50 million and served four months in prison earlier than his launch in September 2024.

Corruption Claims Stem From “Fundamental Misunderstandings”

Guillén systematically dismantled allegations linking the pardon to enterprise dealings between Binance and World Liberty Financial, a crypto platform backed by Trump’s household.

Critics have pointed to USD1 (a stablecoin launched by World Liberty Financial on Binance Smart Chain) and a $2 billion investment from Emirati firm MGX settled utilizing the token as proof of quid professional quo preparations.

The lawyer dismissed these connections as misinterpretations of normal blockchain operations.

“Just as a result of I listing one thing on Craigslist, it doesn’t imply that I due to this fact have some particular relationship with the previous CEO of Craigslist,” she defined, evaluating USD1’s presence on a number of exchanges to open-source platform utilization.

Media stories claiming Binance constructed USD1’s underlying expertise and promoted it to 275 million customers have fueled hypothesis about preferential therapy.

However, Guillén famous that USD1 operates throughout a number of chains and different exchanges maintain the stablecoin, undermining ideas of unique preparations benefiting Trump’s enterprise.

Democratic Lawmakers Demand Investigation Into Pardon Process

Senator Elizabeth Warren led opposition to the pardon, writing that “the convergence of Mr. Zhao’s pardon software and Binance’s monetary entanglements with the President’s household presents pressing issues relating to the integrity of our justice system.”

She posted that CZ “pleaded responsible to a felony cash laundering cost” earlier than financing Trump’s stablecoin and lobbying for clemency.

A group of Democratic senators, together with Bernie Sanders, Chris Van Hollen, Jack Reed, and Mazie Hirono, despatched a letter to Attorney General Pamela Bondi demanding explanations about how the pardon impacts future white-collar prosecutions.

They warned that the choice “alerts to cryptocurrency executives and different white-collar criminals that they will commit crimes with impunity, as long as they enrich President Trump sufficient.“

Representative Maxine Waters notably called the pardon “an appalling however unsurprising reflection of his presidency,” accusing Trump of prioritizing “crypto criminals who’ve helped line his pockets” whereas Americans face rising prices throughout a authorities shutdown.

As a results of all these rising backlashes, representative Ro Khanna announced plans to introduce laws banning elected officers from proudly owning or launching cryptocurrencies in response to what he termed “blatant corruption.“

Trump Claims He Doesn’t Know Who CZ Is Despite Granting Pardon

President Trump distanced himself from the controversy throughout a 60 Minutes interview, claiming he doesn’t know who Zhao is regardless of granting the pardon.

When pressed about Binance’s $2 billion deal involving his household’s crypto enterprise, Trump replied he was “too busy” to find out about it.

“I do know he obtained a four-month sentence or one thing like that, and I heard it was a Biden witch hunt,” Trump mentioned, characterizing the prosecution as politically motivated.

White House spokeswoman Karoline Leavitt defended the choice as completely reviewed by attorneys, framing it as a correction of “heavy-handed Democratic techniques” in opposition to the crypto trade.

CZ expressed gratitude for the pardon, stating he would “do all the pieces we will to assist make America the Capital of Crypto and advance web3 worldwide.”

He denied straight funding Trump’s stablecoin enterprise, dismissing media stories as “misinformation” from rivals.

Meanwhile, Binance is already exploring options to re-enter the US market following the pardon, doubtlessly consolidating its separate US affiliate into world operations or enabling direct American entry to its foremost platform.

The publish Was CZ’s Pardon Bought? His Lawyer Says Media Got It Wrong appeared first on Cryptonews.

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