Source: WTOP News
“President Donald Trump has pardoned Binance founder Changpeng Zhao, who created the world’s largest cryptocurrency exchange and served prison time after failing to stop criminals from using the platform to move money connected to child sex abuse, drug trafficking and terrorism. Zhao had asked Trump for a pardon previously. He has deep ties to World Liberty Financial, a crypto venture that the Republican president and his sons Eric and Donald Jr. launched in September. … White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said in a statement Thursday that the Biden administration prosecuted Zhao out of a ‘desire to punish the cryptocurrency industry.’ She said there were ‘no allegations of fraud or identifiable victims,’ though Zhao had pleaded guilty in November to one count of failing to maintain an anti-money-laundering program.” [editor’s note: In other words, Zhao protected his customers instead of serving the regime’s surveillance apparatus – TLK] (10/23/25)
https://wtop.com/business-finance/2025/10/trump-pardons-binance-founder-changpeng-zhao/