Former Binance CEO Changpeng “CZ” Zhao was sentenced to four months in prison for violating U.S. money laundering laws.
Former Binance CEO Changpeng “CZ” Zhao was sentenced to four months in prison on April 30 in a Seattle courtroom for violating U.S. money laundering laws, following years of investigations by United States authorities.
During the hearing, Judge Richard Jones expressed that there was no evidence to suggest Zhao had been informed of any illegal activities at Binance, rejecting a recommendation from the Department of Justice (DOJ) to increase the sentencing guideline from 10 to 16 months in prison.
A four-month sentence — along with billions of dollars in fines — may look like a light sentence through the eyes of U.S. authorities, as they have been investigating the former executive and its crypto empire for the past six years. From 2018 to 2024, Binance was targeted by several probes involving the DOJ, the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), and the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC), among other agencies.
