Former FTX CEO Sam Bankman-Fried received a 25-year sentence after his conviction on seven felony counts, and many are speculating on what that could mean for Changpeng Zhao.
Former Binance CEO Changpeng “CZ” Zhao is scheduled to appear before a federal judge more than 160 days after pleading guilty to one felony count as part of a settlement agreement with United States authorities.
On April 30, Judge Richard Jones will hear from prosecutors and CZ’s attorneys in United States District Court for the Western District of Washington for one of the most anticipated legal proceedings in the crypto space since the conviction and sentencing of former FTX CEO Sam Bankman-Fried. Zhao’s sentencing hearing has already been pushed back once, but at the time of publication, it was expected to be held by the end of the month.
In November 2023, Zhao pleaded guilty to one count for failure to maintain an effective Anti-Money Laundering (AML) program while at Binance, violating the Bank Secrecy Act. He resigned as CEO as part of the plea deal, in which the crypto exchange and Zhao agreed to pay $4.3 billion to settle “civil regulatory enforcement actions” in the United States — which did not include a lawsuit from the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).
