2024.4.29, CZ 量刑信将币安前首席执行官描绘成出身卑微,忠诚的家庭男人、朋友,对享乐主义冷漠
在周二宣判前，法庭收到了来自他的朋友和亲人的 161 封来信。请求对他明天的判决进行宽大处理。
附：来信中赵长鹏现妻和前妻的信（中文原文）
CZ Sentencing Letters Paint Former Binance CEO as Devoted Family Man, Friend
161 letters from CZ’s friends and loved ones poured into the court ahead of his sentencing on Tuesday.
•Letters of support for Binance co-founder CZ have poured into a Washington court requesting leniency in his sentencing tomorrow.
•Zhao’s lawyers have requested their client be sentenced to probation only, but prosecutors are asking the judge to send him to prison for three years.
•Violating the Bank Secrecy Act (BSA), which Zhao pleaded guilty to last November, is usually punished by probation-only sentences
More than 160 of Changpeng “CZ” Zhao’s loved ones, friends and colleagues have written to a Washington judge ahead of the Binance founder and former CEO’s sentencing tomorrow, asking for leniency and painting a picture of Zhao as a devoted father and friend, and a “geeky” tech nerd who shuns luxury purchases despite his immense personal wealth.
Zhao, 47, pleaded guilty last November to one count of violating the Bank Secrecy Act, agreeing that he failed to implement an effective anti-money laundering (AML) program at Binance in the early days of the exchange.
The Department of Justice (DOJ) has asked the judge to impose a three year prison sentence – double the 18-month maximum established by the sentencing guidelines and harsher than comparable sentences, which often result in a sentence of probation or time served.
In their sentencing memo filed last week, Zhao’s lawyers pointed out several cases where a violation of the BSA resulted in probation-only sentences, including the 2014 case U.S. v. Miller, in which a CEO of a domestic financial institution was sentenced to probation for failing to implement an effective AML program or file suspicious activity reports (SARs).
Zhao’s lawyers have recommended that their client be sentenced to probation, not jail – a sentence which would closely mirror that of BitMEX co-founder Arthur Hayes, who pleaded guilty to the same crime in 2022 and was sentenced to six months of house arrest and two years of probation.
“This is a high-profile case, to be sure. But Mr. Zhao is not a symbol,” Zhao’s lawyers argued. “He is a devoted father, a philanthropist… He has already shown remorse for his offense and, more importantly, has remediated.”
The 161 letters filed with the court served to back up Zhao’s lawyers claims, but also provide an unprecedented glimpse into the private life and personal history of the notoriously private Binance founder.
Humble origins
Zhao, now worth over $40 billion according to Bloomberg’s Billionaires Index, was once a first-generation immigrant to Canada who was the poorest in his high school friend group and worked part-time at McDonald’s “to support his family and to have spare allowance to spend,” Ted Lin, a high school friend and later colleague at Binance, said in his letter.
His friends from high school recall Zhao as a top student and formidable athlete, who became captain of the school volleyball team after teaching himself how to play the sport by reading library books on the subject, Lin’s letter said
Family man
Letters to the court also revealed Zhao to be the father of five children – two adult children from his marriage to Weiqing “Winnie” Yang, who are both currently enrolled at U.S. universities, and three young children with Binance co-founder and current partner Yi He.
According to both Zhao’s current and former partners, he is a devoted father.
In her letter to the court, Zhao’s wife Yang said that, even when Binance was going through massive growth, he took the time to spend time with his adolescent children, flying to see them in Tokyo when they had issues in school and going camping in the Japanese countryside with his middle school-aged son during Boy Scout trips.
Yang also celebrated her estranged husband’s philanthropy – including donations to earthquake victims in Turkey and building schools in Africa, saying “he has done so many things that he may not even remember them.”
He, his current partner, said her children are “very close” to Zhao, and have suffered from his absence over the past five and a half months.
“Now they are always asking: Why isn’t Dad home? When can Dad come back?,” He wrote.
‘Apathy toward hedonism’
He also told the court about Zhao’s disinterest in luxury goods – something that was also mentioned by many of the Binance co-founder’s other family members, friends and colleagues.
“He knows nothing about the jewelry, luxury goods, luxury cars, and art auctions that rich people are passionate about,” He wrote, adding that Zhao purchases his clothes on Amazon, rides a scooter to meetings and drives a Toyota minivan.
Another friend of Zhao’s recollected visiting him at home in 2021, when crypto trading volumes were hitting all-time highs, and being surprised to find him “living under his means” in a three-bedroom apartment in Singapore strewn with children’s toys and operating Binance from his dining room table.
The description of Zhao’s purported “apathy toward hedonism,” as another friend described it, mirrors similar claims by FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried’s family and friends ahead of his sentencing.
In their own letters to the judge, Bankman-Fried’s family attempted to paint the disgraced former FTX CEO as completely uninterested in wealth or luxury or the company of celebrities that were paid to endorse his company. The judge was apparently unconvinced, and sentenced Bankman-Fried to 25 years in prison for his crimes.
Whether or not the judge in Zhao’s case will feel differently will be determined tomorrow, though Zhao’s case has other differences. Bankman-Fried did not accept responsibility or show remorse, according to the judge overseeing his case, while Zhao pleaded guilty last year.
The charges are also different; Zhao’s exchange never filed for bankruptcy and is continuing to operate today, while Bankman-Fried’s notably saw customers worldwide lose access to around $8 billion in funds.
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尊敬的琼斯法官
感谢您花时间阅读这封信，我是赵长鹏（简写 CZ）工作上的合伙人，同时我也是他三个孩子的母亲。希望这封信能帮助法官先生了解一个更真实的赵长鹏。
2014 春天，我在一个学校的区块链公开活动认识赵长鹏，大家称呼他 CZ，和很多人使用的匿名称呼不同，这是他真实名字的首字母缩写。那天 CZ 到达后立即被邀请上台即兴分享，因为主办方发现他为当时最受欢迎的比特币钱包 (blockchain.info)工作。他热情的为大家解释区块链技术及比特币原理，当时他刚刚卖掉自己的房子购入比特币，由于比特币的价格下跌，他的资产大幅缩水，但这并没有打击他对区块链技术的痴迷，他的演讲充满了关于区块链技术能为世界带来积极变化的理想主义，这也极大地影响和启发了我。后来 CZ 选择涉足加密领域并创立了币安，他当然希望公司取得成功，但他并不是一个以赚钱为终极目标的人，他发自内心的希望用技术推动世界的进步。
2014 年夏，CZ 多年积累的撮合与交易技术背景在 Blockchain 不能发挥所长，在我多次邀请后，他加入了我工作的加密交易平台 OKCoin。那时候的币圈已经进入下行周期，在行业一片哀嚎声中，一个社区成员不幸患了白血病，他无力负担自己医疗费用，于是公开发起募捐。CZ 在个人资产极大程度缩水的情况下，也积极地参与捐赠，但很遗憾最后这个社区成员仍去世了。受这件事启发，我和 CZ 共同发起了“爱心 BTC”慈善项目，他搭建一个网站和公开的比特币钱包地址，我们通过社交媒体拍卖衣物等进行募捐，再把BTC 直接换成物品给到受益人。为此 CZ 还撰写了一篇论文，介绍区块链技术如何实现100%透明的慈善事业，确保最终受益人获得 100%的收益，确保不会有任何捐款被中间人管理费侵蚀。 这篇论文可以在 Github 上找到，时间戳为 2014 年 4 月(https://github.com/cpzhao/bitcoin_charity/blob/master/Bitcoin_Charity.md)；而这就是币安慈善的前身。这是在币安成立三年前，那时的 CZ 并不富裕。很多人认为慈善只是沽名钓誉，有的人作为冲抵税务的手段，有的人会说等自己财务自由就会去做慈善，而对 CZ 来说，无论贫穷或者富贵，他都在认认真真的对待慈善，承担社会责任，因为他善良并且有着人道主义精神。
2017 年 8 月，那是我加入币安的第一个月，一个年轻的用户找到我说自己将数千美金打到币安的钱包地址，但币安并没有支持这个代币，所以币安无法收到这笔代币；这是行业早期很常见的错误。按照当时行业的惯例，自己犯的错误自己需要承担。然而对这个 20 岁出头的孩子来讲，那几千美金可能他全家一年的收入，也是他全年的大学学费，是他未来的希望。在我和 CZ 简短的讨论后，他调动本来我们捉襟见肘的开发资源，迅速帮助用户找回了这笔资产，这是行业的第一个帮助用户找回打错地址资产的案例。有了第一次，就有了后来的无数次，在 CZ 的指导下，币安已经帮助超过 18 万用户找回资产总额超过 4.41 亿美金的资产。这是一个耗费大量资源、ROI 来看并不值得做的项目，但我们可以为我们的用户在绝望中点燃希望。到今天在 Coinbase 等这类公开上市的交易平台，他们仍旧不支持这项服务。在这个新兴的狂野西部里，无数的从业者更多的扮演者掠夺者的角色，而 CZ 一直以来都坚持我们应该做正确的事：保护用户。
2018 年初，比特币的价格上涨超过 2 万美金，投资者的热情也滋生了大量的欺诈，一天一群中国用户找到我，指出他们在社交媒体被一个账号引诱投资一个项目，打完钱后这个人随后失踪，但根据公开的链上信息追踪，这笔钱刚刚被转入币安。按照今天大部分平台的执法流程，需要用户先找到警察报警，警察提供协查函才能进行冻结，而那时候中国禁止加密货币交易，中国的警察并不受理这类案件。CZ 对我们说：“做正确的事”，我们临时冻结了这笔赃款，然后将受害者和诈骗的人组织了多次电话，最终诈骗者把钱退还给了用户，诈骗的人也关闭了账号。这只是 CZ 坚持打击做恶者无数例子中的一个，在刚过去的 2023 年，币安配合各国执法部门超过了 58,000 次的案件调查，其中多起案件是由币安主动推动执法部门开启调查，这就是为什么尽管主流媒体试图将 CZ 刻画为一个邪恶的坏人，而数百万的社区用户和普通人将他视为行业的英雄，因为 CZ 对于正义一直有着自己的坚持，如果把加密货币行业比作狂野西部，那 CZ 是这片荒原中的守护者。
2019 年开始，公司的人员开始快速增长，团队构成非常全球化，充满了多样性；在这个期间，有常青藤名校毕业的华尔街精英，也有来自欧洲的辍学学生，有非洲活跃在一线的 NGO 女斗士，也有东南亚乡村不想做打渔海员的男青年，可以说 CZ 真的做到了无论种族、信仰、性别、学历、家庭背景在这里一视同仁；无论是东南亚一个初级员工的房子毁于一场火灾，还是 Covid 席卷全球导致员工缺防疫物资，甚至俄罗斯和乌克兰的战争给员工带来危险，CZ 都是不计成本的去帮助员工；对于一个企业的老板来说，花百万美元去帮助那些面临困境的稀缺人才带领家人离开不稳定的生存环境，持续发放津贴并不稀奇，而 CZ 在决定这些的时候，并没有考虑他们的背景，职级，这也大批的覆盖了那些初出茅庐的初级员工，这些员工普遍很容易找到替代人选，但 CZ 的决策只有一个原因：他们需要支持。
CZ 的领导风格可能不符合优秀首席执行官的传统期望。他在币安对透明和公平的承诺经常与一小群习惯于精英等级企业环境员工的权力预期发生冲突。 这导致一些员工心怀怨恨地离开公司，并向媒体做出不实指控。虽然这些报道有时让我感到沮丧，但 CZ一直肩负着这个重担，继续支持公正和平等，因为他明白真正的公平有时对少数特权者来说就是不公平。
2022 年 11 月一个周末，FTX 面临危机，Sam(SBF)的最后一个求救电话打给了CZ。在没有拿到 SBF 提供的任何有效报表和文档前，CZ 召集了一个管理会议决定是否救助 FTX，他说：“我们并不需要 FTX 这个公司，我们救 FTX 是为了救这个行业，我们应该救 FTX.” 虽然最终无奈放弃这个交易，事件后续公开的信息显示，多个和 FTX 关联的公司都在挪用用户资产，这令 CZ 瞠目结舌。CZ 认为透明是更好的解决方案，所以他公开了币安的交易平台钱包地址，上线可以让用户自行核查自己的账号资金和在线钱包地址联动的产品来展示币安的透明度，而这又进一步推动行业的自律。
迄今为止，我和 CZ 在这个行业共同经历了十年风雨，这十年是行业剧变的十年，这十年比特币从低谷的数百美金上涨到现在超过 4 万美金，我们看到无数曾经的名人声名扫地，也看到无数知名机构的瞬间崩塌，大部分时候这些人都是自诩聪明，他们才华横溢，但视法律为无物，认为自己可以欺骗公众，或者侥幸逃过法律的制裁，但 CZ 不是；他正直、善良、真诚，聪明而且非常非常努力；CZ 因为工作原因，仅在 2020 年就进行了两次脊椎手术，哪怕反复躺在病床上的 18 个月他也没有停止一天工作。过去 6 年作为CEO 和最大股东他领着低于公司后续引入多个高管的薪水，没有进行一次给自己的分红和变现。这次为了让币安能运营下去，他选择主动飞到美国认罪；他在个人利益和公众利益之间，CZ 永远选择牺牲自己，成就 Binance，而当在 Binance 和用户之间，他会选用户。
作为 CZ 的合伙人，我清楚的知道 CZ 是如何赢得社区的尊重；可能是中国政府禁止比特币交易平台时，其他项目方趁机捞一把时，CZ 选择以更高价格清退用户；也可能是币安发生被盗事件，CZ 第一时间公开信息并全权承担，更可能是当无数项目方发币只是为了卖币变得富有，而 CZ 在帮助用户追查行业的骗子和黑客，有的案件甚至和币安毫无关联，只是因为他对这个行业的使命感与责任感。
作为 CZ 的生活伴侣，我与 CZ 相识近十年，所以更了解他不为人知的另外一面，他对富人热衷的珠宝、奢侈品、豪车、艺术拍卖一无所知，他过着简单的生活，他在亚马逊买实惠的衣服，他骑平衡车去开会，他热情的向记者展示他的丰田 6 座面包车后来被记者公开嘲讽，他买东西都是出于效率和兴趣，他对钱、名誉、享受没有狂热的欲望，他希望过有意义的一生。与此同时，他对朋友总是尽可能照顾他们的感受，不管他们的职业和社会地位；他还尽力从繁忙的工作中抽时间和 3 个年幼的孩子保持高质量的互动，孩子们和他很亲近，现在他们总是在问：爸爸为什么不在家？爸爸什么时候可以回来？
当然在这里我并不是说 CZ 没有犯错，但他最大的错误是无知。作为一个没有华丽背景的创业公司，创始团队成员没有法律背景，甚至早期管理团队成员除了 CZ，大部分人连英文都无法阅读，比如我自己。在经验和法律知识匮乏的情况下，CZ 凭借着公平、诚信和对行业的责任感赢得了用户，同时也犯了错误。无论如何，错误已经铸成，而币安和 CZ 都付出了巨大的代价。
CZ 以前说过：“没有人希望自己成为英雄，因为没有人天生想要冲在最前面挡箭，英雄只是在那个位置不得不保护家人、社区、族群、国土去做正确的事，在过程中不得不成为英雄。”我谦卑的希望琼斯法官能综合考虑在加密货币行业如此早期、混乱当中，连这个行业如何监管，如何定义美国都未有定论，作为一个从未管理过这种规模公司的创始人一定会遇到盲区，如果 CZ 知道事情的严重程度，他一定会从第一天开始严防死守，封锁任何美国用户。他不想成为英雄，当然更无意成为罪犯，他所有的行为逻辑都遵循普世的人道主义准则也尽他所能做到最好。今天，是责任感让他选择面对庭审，但他绝对不应该和那些邪恶的杀人、抢劫、欺诈的人视作同类，诚挚的希望琼斯法官能打开上帝之眼，全知全能，在看到更完整的 CZ 后，作出公正的判决。如果需要，您可任何时候联系我，获取更多细节。
诚挚的祝福！
何一
币安 Cofounder & CZ 三个孩子的母亲
2024 年 1 月 11 日
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Dear Judge Jones,
您好。我的名字叫杨伟清，和赵长鹏先生相知于 1999 年，2003 年结婚成为夫妻。
我们之间共同抚养了两个孩子。 在认识长鹏的 25 年里，赵长鹏是一位对妻儿以及家庭极其有责任心，对自己的事业有理想，非常积极乐观向上的人。 尽管在创业事业屡次受挫，最困难的时期，对我和孩子们的照顾是无微不至的。
长鹏是白手起家。他的父母没有给予他任何现金资产或遗产。我结婚以后也一直是全职太太，没有参与过工作。长鹏一直承担着所有家里的开销。在币安的成功之前，长鹏有过几次创业失败的经验。但在创业失败最艰难的时候，他还是一直维持着我和小孩们的家庭开销。他重视孩子教育，同时也很尊重我的教育方向选择，他竭尽所能维持着小孩们能保持在国际学校受教育。并且长鹏也每次都通过自己的努力，还清了所有投资人的债务。他从来没有欠其他人的钱，没有任何负债。 我依然清晰记得在我们孩子们出生后的婴儿时期，幼儿时期，长鹏尽量参与孩子们的陪伴成长，很少缺席任何亲手照料孩子们的机会。换尿布，喂奶，陪伴孩子们旅游等等。直到 2017 年币安的成立后，孩子们也正值青春期，长鹏也变得越来越忙。孩子们在学校上遇到的问题，他都会第一时间回来支持孩子，帮助孩子们一起解决了一个又一个学校上的问题。那时候，我和孩子们居住日本东京，即使远程，我们的两个孩子一直和爸爸保持着亲密的沟通。 让我最深印象的是，我们的儿子在初中时期参与了美国童子军 Boys Scout。众所周知，童子军很多活动是需要父亲的陪伴下共同完成的。有一次在一个露营活动，父子两人跟 boys scout 其他成员一起去日本的某座山河边露营，为期两天。一起搭帐篷，一起生火做饭，寒冷天气里，一起睡在帐篷里等等。在短短的两天时间里，我们儿子从父亲身上学习了很多东西。比如毅力，善良，爱护家人，不怕吃苦，在困难时期依然保持积极以及乐观的心态去迎难而上。
长鹏对年迈 82 岁的妈妈及姐姐的爱也是很无私的。长鹏多年来也一直有照顾我的家人。他帮我父母在东京买了房。也帮我的侄子找到了工作。
早在 2018 年，币安成立不到一年，决定退出日本市场，几个月后日本发洪水，币安捐赠了数千万日币给日本灾区。当时我在日本的家人和朋友都很感激他为灾区，灾民做出了跨国界的贡献。长鹏在各个国家也做了很多慈善，其中包括非洲建学校，土耳其地震的捐款，和中国武汉 Covid 大爆发后的捐赠等。很多他自己可能都不记得了。这样重视家人朋友及孩子教育的男人，是非常有爱心和善良的，是有担当的好男人。 懇求法官大人能轻判，給予长鹏 一个机会去继续照料好他的亲人们。
感谢您。
杨伟清
2024.4.25, Friends, Family, Royalty Seek Mercy for Crypto’s Richest Man(朋友、家人、皇室成员为加密货币首富寻求怜悯)
Friends, Family, Royalty Seek Mercy for Crypto’s Richest Man
•Binance’s Zhao is facing up to three years in US prison
•Pleaded guilty to anti-money-laundering, sanctions violations
Binance co-founder Changpeng Zhao is facing up to three years in prison, if efforts by US prosecutors to secure his sentencing prove successful. More than 160 friends, colleagues and investors are determined for the crypto executive to escape incarceration entirely.
Totaling nearly 350 pages, a trove of letters submitted to a Seattle court by Zhao’s confidantes and co-workers on Wednesday provide insight into the private life of one of the world’s richest people. Among the authors are the two mothers of his five children, titans of industry both in and outside of crypto, government elites, old college buddies and dozens of his employees.
The list of names includes Fosun International co-founder Xinjun Liang, two members of ruling families in the United Arab Emirates, senior leaders at crypto miner Bitfury, the founder of venture capital firm Antler and former US ambassador to China Max Baucus, who serves on Binance’s advisory board. A number of current and former Binance executives also submitted letters, including all three external members of the exchange’s new board of directors who were appointed earlier this month.
Binance pleaded guilty to US anti-money-laundering and sanctions violations late last year, incurring $4.3 billion in penalties as well as having to agree to oversight from authorities. Zhao, who is better known by the moniker “CZ”, also pleaded guilty to anti-money-laundering failures and stepped down as CEO.
Read More: US Seeks Three-Year Prison Sentence for Ex-Binance CEO Zhao
Zhao, 47, is the world’s 29th richest person and is worth about $43 billion, according to the Bloomberg Billionaire Index. Binance remains the world’s largest cryptocurrency exchange.
The letters describe a man uninterested in wealth, with multiple references to Zhao’s preference for affordable clothing from Amazon over luxury goods, dinners cooked by his aunt and taxi cabs over limousines. Yi He, Zhao’s current life partner and Binance co-founder, said the former CEO received a lower salary than other company executives, adding that hadn’t taken any dividends or cash from the business since its founding.
He’s also a family man. Friends described his various homes as often being covered in children’s toys, applauding Zhao’s closeness with his youngest offspring and elderly mother. “They are very close to him and now they are always asking: Why isn’t Dad home? When can Dad come back?” said Yi He of their children. “Of course, I’m not saying here that CZ did not make mistakes, but his biggest mistake was ignorance.”
At a dinner in December last year, Zhao’s teenage son Ryan confronted him about his crimes, one letter read. “I consciously avoided mentioning the case, wanting to provide a respite from his legal troubles,” recounted Ronghui Gu, co-founder of blockchain security firm CertiK and now an associate professor at Columbia University.
“The sudden silence that followed was palpable,” Gu said. “He [Zhao] acknowledged his mistakes and his guilt, emphasizing that making mistakes is not something to be ashamed of, but failing to confront and rectify those mistakes is.”
Business Troubles
Several submissions came from industry executives and investors who’ve known Zhao for a number of years, recalling his staunchness for honesty and integrity in business dealings. When Zhao was chief technology officer of crypto exchange OKCoin in 2015, he resigned in protest at what Richmond Teo, co-founder of stablecoin issuer Paxos Trust Co., called “lapses in management and finance.” OKCoin denied the accuracy of Zhao’s allegations at the time.
“He received many threats and was an individual being publicly attacked by a large and deep pocketed corporation. I asked him to tone it down, but he refused because it was the truth,” wrote Teo, whose firm previously partnered with Binance on its now-defunct stablecoin BinanceUSD. “He made powerful enemies in the industry while standing his ethical grounds.”
Years later, an application by Binance to register its services with the Monetary Authority of Singapore was denied due to Zhao’s controlling shareholdings in other global Binance entities, according to Kee Lock Chua, CEO of Temasek-backed venture capital firm Vertex Venture Holdings.
“After much deliberation, we agreed to withdraw our application. CZ decided to fully refund our original invested cost despite Binance Singapore exhausting half of the invested capital,” said Chua. “This is an unexpected gesture by him and it showed his thoughtfulness and sense of fairness.”
Charity
Many of the letters in support of Zhao referred to numerous charitable donations made by Binance and Zhao. More than 50 employees from Binance’s Ukrainian workforce signed or authored letters, describing the company’s support of their relocation away from the country when Russia invaded its territory in early 2022.
Others referenced personal attributes as evidence of a down-to-earth character, such as Zhao’s preference for riding a scooter to meetings, his fondness for poker games and his time working at McDonald’s while in high school. Several letters talked of Zhao’s time in recovery from two spinal surgeries in 2020, during which he continued to work at Binance while being bedridden.
“When I visited him in 2020, I found him lying flat on his back in bed with a contraption he had made to hold his laptop in place over his face so he could continuously be on his computer while recovering,” said Teo. “He joked that his laptop had fallen on this face [sic] many times in earlier iterations.”
A three-year prison term would be double what Zhao was previously expected to serve under federal guidelines. With the letters of support as evidence alongside Zhao’s own apology and expertise from prison and security consultants, lawyers for Zhao argued he should receive probation instead.
In his own letter to the court, Zhao apologised for his actions. He also lamented having to let go of his life’s work in stepping down from Binance, adding that he hoped to focus on opportunities in education and biological technology innovation in future. “I assumed I would be doing that for the next several decades,” he said of his time at the helm. “That life no longer exists for me. It was difficult to come to terms with that at first, but I have accepted it.”
2024.4.24, 币安创始人赵长鹏在宣判前道歉，其他 161 人发来支持信
Binance Founder Changpeng Zhao Apologizes Ahead of Sentencing, 161 Others Send Letters of Support
Zhao is scheduled to be sentenced on April 30 after he and Binance settled charges with the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) in November 2023.
Binance founder and former chief executive Changpeng “CZ” Zhao apologized for his “poor decisions” and accepted “full responsibility” for his actions in a letter to the judge overseeing his case filed on Tuesday.
赵长鹏在周二提交给负责此案的法官的一封信
Zhao is scheduled to be sentenced on April 30 after he and Binance settled charges with the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) in November 2023. Despite Zhao waiving the right to appeal any sentence up to 18 months back then, the DOJ has now sought a 36-month sentence.
In the letter addressed to the U.S. Judge from the Western District of Washington, Richard A. Jones, Zhao said, “There is no excuse for my failure to establish the necessary compliance controls at Binance” and gave an assurance that this would be his only “encounter with the criminal justice system.”
Going forward, Zhao said, he wanted to support biotech startups and the youth. Along with Zhao’s letter, there were 161 other letters of support seeking leniency from family members, friends and others.
Zhao’s sister, Jessica Zhao, who was a former Managing Director at Morgan Stanley, said that although her brother has made mistakes, he lives to do well for others. She cited the example of the FTX fallout and said Zhao ensured Binance never misused any customer funds.
He Yi, another Binance co-founder and mother of CZ’s three children, wrote, “If the cryptocurrency industry is compared to the Wild West, then CZ is the guardian of this wilderness.”
“Even the U.S. has not decided how to regulate and define this industry,” Yi wrote. As a founder who has never managed a company of this size, he was sure to encounter blind spots.”
His wife Yang Weiqing, with whom Zhao raised two children, stated the example of how Binance donated tens of millions of yen to the disaster-stricken areas of Japan in 2018, despite having withdrawn from the Japanese market just months before.
Zhao’s children, Rachel and Ryan, both students in U.S. universities, provided anecdotes of a supportive father and asked the Judge not to define Zhao’s character solely through this one incident.
A notable letter of support came from Tigran Gambaryan, Binance’s Head of Financial Crime Compliance and a former special agent in the U.S. Department of Treasury, who is languishing in a Nigerian jail at the moment in a dispute between Binance and Nigeria. The letter was written on January 1, 2024, before he was arrested.
“While acknowledging CZ’s prior missteps, I can attest to his integrity, business insight, and philanthropic actions have had a ripple effect, influencing not only Binance’s corporate philosophy but also positively impacting lives globally,” Gambaryan wrote.
Letters of support also came from Max S. Baucus, former U.S. Ambassador to China, Professor Jeremy R. Cooperstock, McGill University, Associate Professor Ronghui Gu, Columbia University, Morgan Stanley Managing Director Sean Yang, and members of the ruling family in the United Arab Emirates.
2024.4.24, Binance’s founder and former chief executive, Changpeng “CZ” Zhao, should spend three years in prison for his role in enabling the crypto exchange to violate federal sanctions and money laundering laws, the U.S. Department of Justice said Tuesday night. The former CEO’s attorneys argued he should serve no jail time, citing the fine he paid and his “extraordinary acceptance of responsibility.”(美国司法部周二晚间表示，币安创始人兼前首席执行官赵长鹏因参与加密货币交易所违反联邦制裁和洗钱法而应入狱三年。这位前首席执行官的律师辩称，他不应该被判入狱，理由是他支付了罚款，而且他“非常愿意承担责任”。赵预计将于 4 月 30 日被判刑。)
Binance Founder Changpeng Zhao Should Spend 3 Years in Prison, DOJ Says
The DOJ wants Zhao to serve 36 months after his guilty plea last year.
Binance’s founder and former chief executive, Changpeng “CZ” Zhao, should spend three years in prison for his role in enabling the crypto exchange to violate federal sanctions and money laundering laws, the U.S. Department of Justice said Tuesday night. The former CEO’s attorneys argued he should serve no jail time, citing the fine he paid and his “extraordinary acceptance of responsibility.”
Attorneys with the DOJ filed a sentencing memo arguing he should spend 36 months in prison and pay a $50 million fine after he pleaded guilty to violating the Bank Secrecy Act last November. Hours later, Zhao’s defense team filed its own sentencing memo, saying “no defendant in a remotely similar BSA case has ever been sentenced to incarceration.” Instead, they suggested he be sentenced to probation, which could include home confinement at his home in Abu Dhabi.
司法部检察官提交了一份量刑备忘录
几小时后，赵的辩护团队提交了自己的量刑备忘录（https://storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.uscourts.wawd.328570/gov.uscourts.wawd.328570.81.0.pdf）
“The sentence in this case will not just send a message to Zhao but also to the world. Zhao reaped vast rewards for his violation of U.S. law, and the price of that violation must be significant to effectively punish Zhao for his criminal acts and to deter others who are tempted to build fortunes and business empires by breaking U.S. law,” the filing said.
Zhao originally faced up to 18 months in prison under the terms of his plea agreement. The DOJ argued in Tuesday’s filing that “the scope and ramifications of Zhao’s misconduct were massive,” and so “an upward variance is appropriate here.”
“In part because Zhao failed to implement an effective AML program at Binance, illicit actors used Binance’s exchange in various ways, including operating mixing services that hid the source and ownership of cryptocurrency; transacting in illicit proceeds from ransomware attacks; and moving proceeds of darknet market transactions, exchange hacks, and various internet-related scams,” the filing said, pointing to fund movements from darknet markets and crypto mixers.
Much of the filing echoes arguments made by the DOJ when it first announced charges against Binance and Zhao last year, pointing to how the exchange operated within the U.S.
The filing also walks through the DOJ’s sentencing guidelines calculations, noting that the guidelines recommend 12 to 18 months, but saying Zhao knew Binance was violating the law and encouraged it.
The filing also took aim at how the Sentencing Guidelines address Bank Secrecy Act violations, saying they “are not designed to adequately punish either misconduct on this scale or misconduct that harms U.S. national security.”
The $50 million fine was already agreed to by both the prosecution and Zhao’s defense team. Zhao also waived the right to appeal any sentence up to 18 months.
Defense pushes back
Zhao did not know and was never “explicitly informed” of specific transactions on Binance with criminal funds, his defense filing said.
“Although Probation references a conversation in which Binance’s chief compliance officer warned Mr. Zhao that there were users from sanctioned countries on Binance.com … the reality is that Binance, as a non-U.S. company, was not prohibited from having users from U.S.-sanctioned countries on its platform,” the filing said. By contrast, the sanctions charge to which the Company pleaded is a novel and narrow one (applied for the first time against Binance) that an algorithmic matching engine violates U.S. sanctions law by randomly pairing users in sanctioned countries with users in the United States.”
Those transactions only made up a microscopically tiny portion of Binance’s trading volume, the filing said, making it “inconceivable that Mr. Zhao acted knowingly and deliberately to bring them about.”
Zhao also does not pose any risk of recidivism, the filing argued, saying that he should be sentenced to probation instead of prison.
Parts of the memo are redacted, though the sections immediately following the redacted portions reference Zhao’s background and letters of support.
Zhao’s supporters include Yi He, the mother of three of his children, his former wife Yang Weiqing, his two adult children with Yang, former U.S. Senator and current Binance lobbyist Max Baucus and a few dozen other individuals.
He was originally set to be sentenced in late February, but the hearing was postponed by mutual agreement to April 30. He hasn’t been able to return to Dubai, where his partner and some of his children live, since he first appeared in federal court in Seattle, Washington last year.
Binance, the world’s largest crypto exchange, pleaded guilty to charges of its own at the same time as Zhao, agreeing to a massive $4.3 billion fine and that it would report to a court-appointed monitor. The monitor has yet to be appointed.
2024.4.24, Binance Founder Should Get 3 Years in Prison, Prosecutors Say. Lawyers for Changpeng Zhao, the founder of the crypto exchange Binance, countered that he should receive no prison time.
Binance Founder Should Get 3 Years in Prison, Prosecutors Say
Lawyers for Changpeng Zhao, the founder of the crypto exchange Binance, countered that he should receive no prison time.
Changpeng Zhao, the founder of the giant cryptocurrency exchange Binance, should go to prison for three years after breaking the law “on an unprecedented scale” and pleading guilty to a money-laundering violation, federal prosecutors wrote in a court filing on Wednesday.
Defense lawyers countered in their own memo that Mr. Zhao, 47, should receive no prison time and face a sentence of probation, arguing that he had accepted responsibility for his crime and showed a commitment to philanthropy.
A federal judge in Seattle, Richard A. Jones, is set to evaluate those dueling recommendations at a sentencing hearing for Mr. Zhao on Tuesday. His sentencing will be the latest landmark in a series of criminal prosecutions that have targeted some of the most powerful figures in the global cryptocurrency industry.
Just 18 months ago, Mr. Zhao, riding high as Binance’s chief executive, helped set off the chain of events that led to the collapse of FTX, Binance’s largest rival, and the imprisonment of the FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried, who was sentenced to 25 years for fraud. Now Mr. Zhao faces his own prison sentence after cutting a deal with prosecutors in November, admitting that he failed to set up an adequate system at Binance to prevent money laundering.
Under federal guidelines, that crime carries a sentence of 12 to 18 months, prosecutors wrote in their memo. They noted that the U.S. probation department had recommended five months behind bars for Mr. Zhao. But the government is seeking a three-year sentence, the memo said, because of the “the scope and ramifications” of Mr. Zhao’s behavior.
As Binance’s founder, Mr. Zhao was once arguably the most powerful executive in the cryptocurrency industry. At times, Binance processed as much as two-thirds of all crypto transactions. Mr. Zhao has a fortune worth $33 billion, according to Forbes.
But for years, he was dogged by accusations that Binance had broken the law to expand its business worldwide. In November, the company agreed to pay $4.3 billion in fines and restitution to the U.S. government, settling charges that it had violated economic sanctions against Syria, Cuba and Iran while allowing criminal activity to flourish on its platform.
Separately, Mr. Zhao pleaded guilty to failing to maintain an adequate anti-money-laundering program at Binance. As part of the deal, he agreed to pay a $50 million fine and step down as Binance’s chief executive. He was replaced by Richard Teng, a former regulator in Singapore who had been groomed to succeed him.
In court papers, Mr. Zhao admitted to prioritizing Binance’s growth over its compliance with the Bank Secrecy Act, which requires companies to avoid doing business with criminals or people facing economic sanctions. He told Binance’s employees that it was “better to ask for forgiveness than permission,” court papers said, and allowed Binance customers to create accounts without sharing the sort of detailed personal information that financial services firms usually require.
“Zhao’s sentence should reflect the gravity of his crimes,” prosecutors wrote in the filing on Wednesday. “Zhao and Binance put U.S. customers, the U.S. financial system and U.S. national security at risk.”
In their memo, Mr. Zhao’s lawyers argued that he deserved lenience, emphasizing that he came to the United States from his home in the United Arab Emirates to plead guilty. They wrote that while Mr. Zhao had admitted to a compliance failure at Binance, he had not pleaded guilty to engaging in money laundering, fraud or theft.
“Mr. Zhao is not a symbol. He is a devoted father, a philanthropist,” the defense memo said. “He has already shown remorse for his offense and, more importantly, has remediated.”
The memo included letters from Mr. Zhao’s friends and Binance employees, some of whom wrote that the company was working hard to cooperate with law enforcement organizations around the world. Defense lawyers cast Mr. Zhao as “frugal and humble,” saying he intended to give away 90 to 99 percent of his wealth.
Among the letter writers were Mr. Zhao’s two adult children, both students at American universities, and Max Baucus, a former U.S. senator and ambassador to China. In his letter, Mr. Baucus, who worked as an adviser to Binance, described Mr. Zhao as a “near genius” and “one of the most decent persons I have known.”
“My impression was that Binance grew exponentially and became somewhat unwieldy,” he wrote. “He now clearly understands he should have exercised much more diligence.”
Since his guilty plea, Mr. Zhao has remained in the United States, after Judge Jones rejected his request to return home to his family in Dubai before his sentencing. Prosecutors said in the memo that he had traveled freely throughout the country, including to Telluride, Colo., and Los Angeles.
2024.2.12, Criminal sentencing of Binance founder CZ postponed to late April
Criminal sentencing of Binance founder CZ postponed to late April
The sentencing of former Binance CEO Changpeng Zhao on a money laundering rule charge has been postponed until April 30, a notice in Seattle federal court shows.
Zhao, a resident of the United Arab Emirates who is known as “CZ,” is free on a $175 million release bond in the United States.
Zhao pleaded guilty on Nov. 21 to a charge of failure to maintain an effective anti-money laundering program at Binance, the world’s largest cryptocurrency exchange, which he founded.
The criminal sentencing of Binance founder Changpeng Zhao on a money laundering rule charge has been postponed until April 30, according to a notice Monday in Seattle federal court.
That docket entry did not explain what would be a two-month delay in sentencing Zhao, a Canadian national widely known as “CZ” who is free on a $175 million release bond in the United States.
Zhao’s lawyer, William Burck, declined to comment when asked about the postponement. CNBC has asked the Department of Justice about the delay.
Federal sentencing guidelines suggest a maximum sentence of 18 months in prison for Zhao, but prosecutors reportedly have considered asking for a harsher sentence.
Zhao pleaded guilty on Nov. 21 to a charge of failure to maintain an effective anti-money laundering program at Binance, the world’s largest cryptocurrency exchange. As part of that plea, he agreed to step down as Binance’s chief executive officer and to pay a $50 million fine.
Binance at the same time agreed to pay $4.3 billion in fines and restitution as part of its guilty plea to conspiracy to conduct an unlicensed money-transmitting business, conducting such a business and violating the International Emergency Economic Powers Act.
“Binance was allowing illicit actors to transact freely, supporting activities from child sexual abuse to illegal narcotics to terrorism,” Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen when the company and Zhao pleaded guilty.
Zhao originally was scheduled to be sentenced on Feb. 23.
The judge in Zhao’s case in early December rejected his request to be able to travel to his home in the United Arab Emirates before he is sentenced.
U.S. District Judge Richard Jones cited Zhao’s “enormous wealth” and lack of ties to the United States in finding he was a flight risk.
Jones in late December rejected another bid by Zhao to travel to the U.A.E. Zhao in his new application had said he wanted to travel home for the “hospitalization and surgery” of a person in his life.
He had offered to post his equity in Binance as security for his return.
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