Binance’s CEO and founder, Changpeng Zhao, has pleaded guilty to money laundering, unlicensed money transmitting, and violations in Seattle. Binance will pay over $4 billion in fines and penalties as part of settlements with the U.S. Treasury Department and the Commodity Futures Trading Commission. Zhao, in exchange for his guilty plea, will step down from his position and pay a $50 million fine. Prosecutors are seeking an 18-month prison sentence for Zhao, the maximum under federal guidelines. Binance will accept a government monitor to oversee its operations, and Zhao is barred from any involvement with Binance for three years after the monitor’s appointment. The attorney general, Merrick Garland, stated that Binance is paying one of the largest corporate penalties in U.S. history, emphasizing that it became the world’s largest cryptocurrency exchange partly due to the crimes it committed. This marks the second-largest cryptocurrency exchange firm charged for money laundering, following the recent guilty verdict of Sam Bankman-Fried, former CEO of FTX.
By FCCT Editorial Team
, an independent military force, and allied militias in Sudan raped several dozen women and girls in West Darfur’s capital, El Geneina, and those fleeing to Chad between late April and late June 2023, Human Rights Watch said today. The assailants appear to have targeted people because of their Massalit ethnicity and, in some cases, because they were known activists.){kind=link}