Former Binance CEO Changpeng Zhao pled guilty to failing to maintain an effective anti-money laundering program causing the global cryptocurrency exchange to fail.
He was charged in the United States for breaking U.S. anti-money laundering laws for failing to report more than 100,000 suspicious transactions with organizations that the United States deemed to be terrorist groups, including Hamas and al Qaeda.
As part of the plea deal, Zhao agreed to pay more than $4.3 billion. He also paid $150 million as penalty and could face up to 18 months in prison.
In June 2022, Mr. Zhao visited Palau and spoke with Palau leadership about cryptocurrency. During an interview at the press conference, Island Times reporter asked him about the allegations made against Binance being used as a conduit for laundering dirty money or conducting illegal financial activities.
Mr. Zhao vehementally denied the allegations saying that the blockchain system is quite secure, and denied allegations made against Binance.
He said, “We find that bad actors don’t live on the blockchain, they don’t use the blockchain technologies,” Traditional financial systems are used more for illicit financial activities, 5% of traditional money transactions around the world involve illicit money activities whereas crypto transactions account for “only 0.15%, Zhao added.
Mr. Zhao assured that the Reuters article has been debunked and that Reuters has not provided evidence to back up its claim of 2.3 billion illicit transactions on the Binance crypto exchange.
Earlier this week, he was charged with money laundering violations by failing to report over 100,000 suspicious transactions involving terrorist groups.
He is allowed to move freely within the US while awaiting his sentencing.
Former Binance CEO pled guilty to money laundering violations
