Binance Founder Gets 4 Months Behind Bars for Money Laundering
The founder of the world’s largest cryptocurrency exchange has been sentenced to four months in prison for allowing money launderers to operate virtually unchecked on his platform.
Changpeng Zhao pleaded guilty to one count of failing to take required anti-money-laundering measures last November, the same month he resigned from Binance. The company has since agreed to pay a $4.3 billion fine in federal court to settle a lawsuit brought last June by the Commodity Futures and Trading Commission.
As he sentenced Zhao, U.S. District Judge Richard A. Jones noted he’d prioritized “Binance’s growth and profits over compliance with U.S. laws and regulations,” according to The Verge.