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Crypto exchange company Binance helped the Trump family make billions of dollars for their cryptocurrency venture Earlier Donald Trump pardoned its co-founderAnd a new report suggests the revived company now stands to reap a windfall of its own.
Changpeng Zhao, also known as “CZ”, was pardoned. Last week after the Trump administration Said the businessman was “prosecuted by the Biden administration in the war on cryptocurrency.”
Zhao pleaded guilty for enabling money laundering and agreed to step down as CEO of Binance in 2023 as part of a $4.3 billion settlement with the Justice Department. He spent four months in jail.
Once Trump, who has Described himself as a crypto-friendly president, After winning the 2024 elections, Zhao’s company reportedly got an opening.
Binance created a “high-level task force to negotiate a deal” with Trump-affiliated cryptocurrency venture World Liberty Financial, and launched a months-long bid for clemency. wall street journal The report cited people familiar with the matter.
Trump family members, through an umbrella company, own more than half of world freedom,
World Liberty’s new stablecoin product – a cryptocurrency designed to maintain a one-to-one value with the US dollar – has seen the value of its shares rise from $127 million to more than $2.1 billion this spring after Binance stepped in. WSJ,
The technology supporting World Liberty’s stablecoin, USD1, was created by Binance and a few weeks after USD1 launched in March, an Emirati state-backed fund – MGX – used it to invest $2 billion in Zhao’s company, according to bloombergThe move by MGX reportedly provided World Liberty with the opportunity to potentially receive hundreds of millions of dollars in interest.
World Liberty told WSJ Binance was not involved in the deal with MGX, while a lawyer for Binance said Zhao “did not act as a relationship facilitator or financier” between MGX and the Trump family’s crypto venture.
Now that Trump has pardoned Zhao, the world’s largest trading crypto platform is likely to make a comeback in the US following its 2023 ban.
World Liberty told WSJ Amnesty was never discussed. The company’s lawyer, Tom Clair, said World Liberty “never aided, facilitated or influenced the decision on Mr. Zhao’s presidential pardon.”
The company said it supports Zhao’s apology. “Anyone who has been a victim of Joe Biden’s legislation has been rightly forgiven,” said Gail Gitcho, a spokeswoman for World Liberty. WSJ,
Binance lawyer Wayne F. Dennison said there was “no impropriety” and that the company “did not control the stablecoin chosen by MGX.”
Trump said last week that the pardon came at the request of “a lot of very good people,” but aspects of the decision concern some within his administration. WSJ,
White House press secretary Carolyn Leavitt told the outlet that neither Trump nor his family have ever been, or would ever be, involved in a conflict of interest.
Zhao was released from prison in September. Following Trump’s 2024 election victory, Zhao and her Binance co-founder, Yi He, who is also her romantic partner, reportedly socialized with some high-profile names in the Trump circle.
In December, the couple hosted guests on a yacht in Abu Dhabi for the Grand Prix, including Elon Musk’s father Errol Musk and Bilal bin Saqib, a tech entrepreneur who later became an advisor to World Liberty. WSJ,
While in Abu Dhabi, Zhao reportedly socialized with Eric Trump and Steve Witkoff, now Trump’s special envoy, at a Bitcoin conference, according to the outlet. World Liberty and a Trump administration official denied that the three met at the conference.
A few months later, in April, Zhao met with World Liberty’s Jack Witkoff – Steve Witkoff’s son – Saqib, crypto entrepreneurs, and other representatives associated with MGX at a beach restaurant at the St. Regis.
Zhao’s guilty plea was part of a multi-billion dollar settlement with the Justice Department, which was investigating Binance for violating the Bank Secrecy Act, failing to register as a money transmission business and violating the International Emergency Economic Powers Act.
Federal prosecutors claimed that Binance neglected to comply with legal obligations, allowing terrorists, cybercriminals, and child abusers to transfer funds through its platform.
Zhao pleaded guilty to failing to maintain an effective anti-money laundering program in violation of the Bank Secrecy Act and resigned.
Democratic Senator Elizabeth Warren criticized Trump’s decision to pardon Zhao.
“First, Changpeng Zhao pleaded guilty to criminal money laundering charges. Then he promoted one of Donald Trump’s crypto ventures and lobbied for a pardon,” Warren said in a statement. “If Congress does not stop this type of corruption pending market structure legislation, it is responsible for this chaos.”
Democratic Representative Jerry Nadler of New York said, “Trump is selling clemency to anyone who can personally benefit him. This is a shameful abuse of power and a travesty of justice.”
Even some Trump supporters were vocal in their opposition to Zhao’s pardon.
Joe Lonsdale, co-founder of the software company Palantir Technologies, said in a post on X last week that Trump “has been given very bad advice.” “It makes it look like there’s massive fraud going on around him in this area,” Lonsdale, a Trump supporter, said.
Laura Loomer, a close confidant of the president, criticized the move before it was announced last week.
“You know who gets Emirati citizenship when they weren’t born in the UAE? People who are trying to avoid punishment for crimes,” Loomer said. Zhao responded that he no longer held Chinese citizenship.
Binance representatives argued that under the Trump administration, Zhao’s actions would not be prosecutable. WSJ,
Ariana Baio contributed reporting