Trump defended pardoning Binance founder CZ Zhao, claiming he “didn’t know him” and believed the Biden administration’s prosecution was a witch hunt. Critics allege the pardon links to his family’s crypto dealings.

Former President Donald Trump has publicly defended his decision to pardon Binance founder Changpeng “CZ” Zhao, distancing himself from Zhao personally while critics argue the move is intertwined with the Trump family’s own crypto business interests. The pardon followed Zhao’s conviction over anti-money laundering failures at Binance and came amid deepening financial and strategic ties between Binance and a Trump-linked crypto venture. Changpeng Zhao pleaded guilty in 2023 to a criminal violation of the Bank Secrecy Act for failing to implement adequate anti-money laundering controls at Binance, which allowed criminals to use the exchange to move funds tied to child sexual exploitation, drug trafficking, and terrorism, and he served a four‑month prison sentence. After months of lobbying and appeals from Binance and allies, Trump granted him a presidential pardon, which removed the federal conviction and helped clear the way for Binance to expand operations in the U.S. under new CEO Richard Teng, following a multi‑billion‑dollar settlement with U.S. authorities. The political controversy centers on the overlap between the pardon and the Trump family’s crypto dealings. Trump and his sons launched World Liberty Financial, a crypto project that issued the USD1 dollar-pegged stablecoin and became a major source of Trump’s reported income. Binance not only hosted the Trump family’s crypto firm and helped popularize its tokens, generating hundreds of millions of dollars in fees, but a UAE investment fund also planned to use about $2 billion worth of USD1 to buy into Binance. Critics, including Senator Elizabeth Warren, argue that Zhao’s financial and business links to a Trump-related crypto venture, combined with the commercial benefits Binance could derive from the pardon, make the episode a potential case study in conflicts of interest and the use of presidential clemency to aid a business partner.

✨ AI-generated background, compiled from web sources — not editorial content.

More coverage

• Trump pardons convicted Binance founder Changpeng "CZ" Zhao (axios.com)
• President Trump Pardons Binance Founder Changpeng Zhao (binance.com)
• Trump pardons Binance founder Changpeng Zhao | PBS News (pbs.org)

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