Binance Founder Gets Four-Month Prison Sentence

Mr Zhai resigned from Binance in November and pleaded guilty to violating US money laundering laws.

Binance was ordered to pay $4.3 billion after a US investigation found it helped users bypass sanctions.

Business Post had reported that prosecutors had sought a three-year sentence for the Binance founder.

At a sentencing hearing on Tuesday in Seattle, Judge Richard Jones said Mr Zhao put “Binance’s growth and profits over compliance with US laws and regulations.”

US officials said in November that Binance and Mr Zhao’s “wilful violations” of its laws had threatened the US financial system and national security.

“Binance turned a blind eye to its legal obligations in the pursuit of profit,” said Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen.

“Its wilful failures allowed money to flow to terrorists, cybercriminals, and child abusers through its platform.

“I failed here,” Mr Zhao said before Judge Jones issued the sentence. “I deeply regret my failure, and I am sorry.”

“I believe the first step of taking responsibility is to fully recognise the mistakes. Here I failed to implement an adequate anti-money-laundering program … I realise now the seriousness of that mistake”, he said.

Binance allowed more than 1.5 million virtual currency trades, totalling nearly $900 million, that violated US sanctions, including ones involving Hamas’s Qassam Brigades, al-Qaeda and Iran.

“He made a business decision that violating US law was the best way to attract users, build his company, and line his pockets,” the US Department of Justice wrote in a sentencing memorandum filed last week.

Mr Zhao’s lawyers insisted he should receive no prison time at all, citing his willingness to come from the United Arab Emirates (UAE), where he and his family live, to the US to plead guilty, despite the UAE’s lack of an extradition treaty with the US.

Mr Zhao is the second major crypto boss to be sentenced to prison after Mr Sam Bankman-Fried received 25 years behind bars for stealing eight billion Dollars from customers of his now-bankrupt FTX exchange.