Zhao’s sentencing marks the conclusion of the process, with Judge Richard Jones ruling that the crypto entrepreneur—estimated to be worth around $43 billion, making him the richest inmate to serve time in the U.S.—must pay a $50 million personal fine in addition to his time behind bars.
The rise and fall of Changpeng Zhao
Zhao founded Binance in 2017, and it became the largest crypto exchange in just six months. Amid its meteoric growth, however, Binance struggled to implement effective “know your customer” and anti–money-laundering regimes—an embarrassing reality laid bare in complaints filed by the CFTC and Securities and Exchange Commission in 2023, including internal messages revealing that executives were aware of widespread compliance violations.
Notably, the settlement did not include…
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