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<\/p>\nDonald Trump has pardoned the founder of the world’s biggest cryptocurrency exchange – amid allegations of a conflict of interest.<\/p>\n
Changpeng Zhao spent almost four months behind bars last year after admitting that Binance had failed to maintain an effective anti-money laundering programme.<\/p>\n
Prosecutors in the case had alleged that inadequate checks had meant criminals could move illicit funds using crypto – including child sex offenders, drug traffickers, terrorists and sanctioned countries.<\/p>\n
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Image:
\n White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt has spoken about Changpeng Zhao’s pardon. Pic: AP<\/p>\n
Mr Trump’s decision to offer clemency has attracted criticism from some ethics experts, given the president’s business empire includes several crypto ventures.<\/p>\n
White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt has rejected claims of a conflict of interest, and argued that Joe Biden’s administration had prosecuted Zhao as part of a “war on cryptocurrency”.<\/p>\n
She told reporters: “The president and the White House have a very thorough examination of every pardon request that comes to the president’s desk.<\/p>\n
“I spoke with our great White House counsel about the pardon after it happened. This was an overly prosecuted case by the Biden administration.”<\/p>\n
But Democratic Senator Elizabeth Warren – a vocal sceptic of the crypto space – has criticised the pardon.<\/p>\n
“First, Changpeng Zhao pleaded guilty to a criminal money laundering charge. Then he boosted one of Donald Trump’s crypto ventures and lobbied for a pardon. Today, Donald Trump did his part and pardoned him,” she wrote on X.<\/p>\n
Binance has refused to respond to her claims.<\/p>\n
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2:13<\/p>\n
Could the seized Bitcoin help Chancellor Rachel Reeves plug the hole in the public finances?<\/p>\n
Mr Trump’s family is involved in a crypto venture called World Liberty Financial, which has launched a digital asset called USD1 – a stablecoin whose value is pegged to the dollar.<\/p>\n
Earlier this year, a Middle Eastern investment fund announced it was making a $2bn investment into Binance using USD1, creating a direct connection between the two men’s businesses.<\/p>\n
Mr Trump’s most recent financial disclosure report reveals he made more than $57m (\u00a342.7m) in 2024 from World Liberty Financial.<\/p>\n
In a post on X, Zhao said that he was “deeply grateful for today’s pardon and to President Trump for upholding America’s commitment to fairness, innovation, and justice”.<\/p>\n
He added: “Will do everything we can to help make America the Capital of Crypto.”<\/p>\n
Read more from Sky News: X<\/p>\n This content is provided by X, which may be using cookies and other technologies. Unfortunately we have been unable to verify if you have consented to X cookies. Enable Cookies<\/a> Speaking to reporters, Mr Trump argued that Zhao had been recommended for a pardon repeatedly – and “a lot of people say he wasn’t guilty of anything”.<\/p>\n The president added that he didn’t believe he had ever met the entrepreneur personally.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Donald Trump has pardoned the founder of the world’s biggest cryptocurrency exchange – amid allegations of a conflict…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":100927,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[42,43,40,38,41,39],"class_list":{"0":"post-100926","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-headlines","8":"tag-headlines","9":"tag-news","10":"tag-top-news","11":"tag-top-stories","12":"tag-topnews","13":"tag-topstories"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/100926","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=100926"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/100926\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/100927"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=100926"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=100926"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=100926"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
Trump’s sanctions are no slap on the wrist<\/a>
East Wing of White House will be demolished<\/a><\/p>\n
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