After completing his four-month prison sentence for money laundering charges last year, Binance founder and former CEO Changpeng “CZ” Zhao said recently that he has begun the application process for a pardon from President Trump.
In an exclusive interview with Farokh Sarmad of Rug Radio, Decrypt’s sister company, Zhao called out false reports about his pardon pleas, dismissing claims that he was attempting to offload Binance.US equity in exchange for a pardon.
“There’s a lot of news articles saying I’m trying to exchange Binance.US equity for a pardon,” Zhao said. “That’s completely not true. I’ve had zero discussions about Binance.US equity with anyone.”
Instead, Zhao said that he’s working with lawyers and taking necessary legal steps to apply for a pardon, which he admitted he “certainly wouldn’t mind” receiving.
“There are legal means to apply,” Zhao told Sarmad. “I’ve got lawyers applying.”
According to the former Binance frontman, that process only began in the recent weeks, after a report from the Wall Street Journal surfaced claims about an equity exchange for a pardon.
“I think we only submitted the application two weeks ago,” he said during last week’s interview from Token2049 Dubai, adding that the inaccurate news stories only fueled his desire to do so.
“If they’re writing these articles, we might as well officially apply, right?” said Zhao.
Trump has already pardoned a handful of notable crypto personalities, including Silk Road creator Ross Ulbricht in the first days of his second term. Ulbricht had spent more than a decade behind bars on charges of money laundering in connection to the marketplace—which was fueled by Bitcoin payments—and conspiracy to traffic narcotics.
At the end of March, he also granted a pardon to Arthur Hayes and his BitMEX co-founders Benjamin Delo and Samuel Reed. The trio pleaded guilty in 2022 to failing to operate an anti-money laundering operation, a violation of the Bank Secrecy Act.
With his application submitted, Zhao joins a couple other notable crypto industry players in seeking pardons: Roger “Bitcoin Jesus” Ver, and reportedly also former FTX boss Sam Bankman-Fried, per media reports.
