{"id":7299,"date":"2024-06-01T00:40:48","date_gmt":"2024-06-01T00:40:48","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/demo5.dedicatedhost247.com\/zexo\/binances-ex-ceo-begins-prison-sentence-in-california\/"},"modified":"2024-06-01T00:40:48","modified_gmt":"2024-06-01T00:40:48","slug":"binances-ex-ceo-begins-prison-sentence-in-california","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/demo5.dedicatedhost247.com\/zexo\/binances-ex-ceo-begins-prison-sentence-in-california\/","title":{"rendered":"Binance’s ex-CEO begins prison sentence in California"},"content":{"rendered":"


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Former Binance CEO Changpeng Zhao, center, departs federal court in Seattle on April 30, 2024.<\/p>\n

Jason Redmond | AFP | Getty Images<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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Binance’s billionaire founder Changpeng Zhao\u00a0has reported to a low-security federal prison in Lompoc, California. CNBC reached out to Zhao’s defense team at Latham & Watkins to confirm that the former crypto chief is now in custody.<\/p>\n

Zhao was sentenced to four months in prison<\/a> in April after pleading guilty to charges of enabling money laundering at his crypto exchange.<\/p>\n

The sentence handed down to the former Binance chief was significantly less than the\u00a0three years that federal prosecutors had been seeking for him<\/a>. The defense had asked for five months of probation. The sentencing guidelines called for a prison term of 12 to 18 months.<\/p>\n

“I’m sorry,” Zhao told U.S. District Judge Richard Jones before receiving his sentence, according to Reuters.<\/p>\n

“I believe the first step of taking responsibility is to fully recognize the mistakes,” Zhao\u00a0reportedly said in court. “Here I failed to implement an adequate anti-money laundering program. \u2026 I realize now the seriousness of that mistake.”<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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In November<\/a>, Zhao, commonly known as “CZ,” struck a deal with the U.S. government to resolve a multiyear investigation into Binance, the world’s largest cryptocurrency exchange. As part of the settlement, Zhao stepped down as the company’s CEO.<\/p>\n

Though he is no longer running the company, Zhao is widely reported to have an estimated 90% stake in Binance.<\/p>\n

The scope of his alleged crimes included willfully failing to implement an effective anti-money laundering program as required by the Bank Secrecy Act, and allowing Binance to process transactions involving proceeds of unlawful activity, including between Americans and individuals in sanctions jurisdictions.<\/p>\n

The U.S. ordered Binance to pay $4.3 billion in fines and forfeiture. Zhao agreed to pay a\u00a0$50 million fine.<\/p>\n

FTX’s founder and former CEO, Sam Bankman-Fried, is also serving time in federal prison in the U.S. Bankman-Fried, who was convicted on all seven criminal counts against him in November, was sentenced to 25 years in prison in March<\/a> for the securities fraud conspiracy that doomed his cryptocurrency exchange and a related hedge fund, Alameda Research. Bankman-Fried was also ordered to pay $11 billion in forfeiture at the sentencing in Manhattan federal court.<\/p>\n

Unlike Zhao, Bankman-Fried did not strike a deal with the government. Instead, other members of his C-suite cooperated with prosecutors. Caroline Ellison, Alameda’s former CEO and Bankman-Fried’s ex-girlfriend, was a star witness for the government during his criminal trial.<\/p>\n

\u2014 CNBC’s Jim Forkin contributed to this report.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Don\u2019t miss these exclusives from CNBC PRO<\/h2>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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\"Sam<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Former Binance CEO Changpeng Zhao, center, departs federal court in Seattle on April 30, 2024. Jason Redmond | AFP | Getty Images Binance’s billionaire founder Changpeng Zhao\u00a0has reported to a low-security federal prison in Lompoc, California. CNBC reached out to Zhao’s defense team at Latham & Watkins to confirm that the former crypto chief is […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":7300,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"spay_email":""},"categories":[46],"tags":[2506,11026,302,1036,199,1060,299,479,11027,303,4832,9533,11028,304],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/image.cnbcfm.com\/api\/v1\/image\/107408466-1714508552996-gettyimages-2150369914-AFP_34QL69N.jpeg?v=1717190091&w=1920&h=1080","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/demo5.dedicatedhost247.com\/zexo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7299"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/demo5.dedicatedhost247.com\/zexo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/demo5.dedicatedhost247.com\/zexo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/demo5.dedicatedhost247.com\/zexo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/demo5.dedicatedhost247.com\/zexo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7299"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/demo5.dedicatedhost247.com\/zexo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7299\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/demo5.dedicatedhost247.com\/zexo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/7300"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/demo5.dedicatedhost247.com\/zexo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7299"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/demo5.dedicatedhost247.com\/zexo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7299"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/demo5.dedicatedhost247.com\/zexo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7299"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}