A US court sentenced the founder and former director of the largest cryptocurrency exchange Binance, Changpeng Zhao, to four months in prison. The businessman is accused of money laundering and violation of sanctions.
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According to the WSJ, Zhao admitted his guilt and agreed to pay a fine of $50 million. In addition, the billionaire voluntarily attended the court hearing from the United Arab Emirates to the United States.
According to the investigation, the former director of Binance violated the Bank Secrecy Act and, under his leadership, more than 1.5 million transfers worth $900 million were processed through the cryptocurrency exchange to finance terrorism and other activities. illegal activities, including assistance in evading sanctions.
The prosecution asked for a three-year prison sentence for Zhao. That’s double the standard 18-month sentence for such violations because prosecutors said “the scope and consequences of Zhao’s illegal actions were enormous.”
The billionaire’s lawyers argued for house arrest, noting that “no defendant in a case remotely similar to the Bank Secrecy Act has been sentenced to prison.”
Author:
Akhmed Sadulayev
Source: RB
I am a professional journalist and content creator with extensive experience writing for news websites. I currently work as an author at Gadget Onus, where I specialize in covering hot news topics. My written pieces have been published on some of the biggest media outlets around the world, including The Guardian and BBC News.
