- The initial ruling after the settlement allowed Zhao to travel home
- It would be punitive to keep him from seeing his family in the UAE
Ex-Binance CEO Changpeng Zhao’s defense team asked a federal judge to allow their client to return to his home in the United Arab Emirates before standing trial in the US, CBS News reported. He pled guilty to money laundering charges.
Zhao reached a settlement with the US Department of Justice in the amount of $4.3 billion. However, he still faces up to a decade in prison. The initial ruling allowed Zhao to travel home. Later, DOJ prosecutors requested Zhao be barred from leaving the country as he posed a flight risk.
Preventing him from seeing his family is “punitive”
Zhao’s defense team filed a motion in the Western District of Washington in Seattle on November 23, claiming he is not a flight risk and pointing out that he willingly appeared in court and pled guilty. They stated in the legal filing that it would be punitive to keep him from seeing his family in the UAE. Apparently, he and his wife recently had their third child, and permitting him to go back home would help prepare the whole family for what awaits.
The Seattle court is expected to rule on the motion by November 27.
Binance failed to stop money laundering
A number of law enforcement agencies and federal regulators are investigating Binance, the biggest crypto exchange in the world. Those include the Commodities Futures Trading Commission.
This week, Binance officials admitted they failed to stop money laundering. What’s more, Binance operated in the US illegally, allowing traders in Iran and other countries facing US sanctions to do business with customers in the US.
Effect of darknet actors on the platform
Federal regulators accuse Binance of making illegal profit by letting “darknet” actors and other malicious entities operate on the platform as well as failing to screen for other illicit services. Zhao himself admitted that he intentionally disregarded concrete filtration processes for malicious entities on Binance and refrained from filing reports of suspicious activity with law enforcement.
