{"id":83310,"date":"2023-11-21T20:52:31","date_gmt":"2023-11-21T20:52:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.estaql.com\/binance-ceo-changpeng-zhao-steps-down-and-pleads-guilty-to-criminal-charges-business-news\/"},"modified":"2023-11-21T20:52:31","modified_gmt":"2023-11-21T20:52:31","slug":"binance-ceo-changpeng-zhao-steps-down-and-pleads-guilty-to-criminal-charges-business-news","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/estaql.com\/seo\/binance-ceo-changpeng-zhao-steps-down-and-pleads-guilty-to-criminal-charges-business-news\/","title":{"rendered":"Binance CEO Changpeng Zhao steps down – and pleads guilty to criminal charges | Business News"},"content":{"rendered":"

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Binance CEO Changpeng Zhao steps down – and pleads guilty to criminal charges | Business News<\/h2>\n

Binance CEO Changpeng Zhao steps down – and pleads guilty to criminal charges | Business News<\/p>\n

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The founder of the world’s largest crypto exchange has stepped down – and pleaded guilty to breaking anti-money laundering laws.<\/p>\n

Changpeng Zhao’s shock departure from Binance comes as part of a $4bn (\u00a33.2bn) settlement that has been reached with US regulators.<\/p>\n

It is the culmination of a multi-year investigation into the trading platform, and the billionaire – known as “CZ” – is set to be sentenced next year.<\/p>\n

The case bears similarities to the collapse of FTX, which was the world’s second-largest exchange – and Sam Bankman-Fried was found guilty on fraud charges earlier this month.<\/p>\n

Bankman-Fried was convicted of misusing billions of dollars in funds belonging to customers, and now faces the prospect of spending decades behind bars.<\/p>\n

In court on Tuesday, Zhao admitted that he had failed to take steps to prevent money laundering at Binance.<\/p>\n

The embattled entrepreneur lives in the United Arab Emirates, which does not have an extradition treaty with the US.<\/p>\n

But his lawyer told a court in Seattle: “He decided to come here and face the consequences. He’s sitting here. He pled guilty.”<\/p>\n

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\n Binance founder and chief executive Zhao Changpeng. Pic: Singapore Press via AP
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Zhao has also vowed to return when he is sentenced, telling the judge: “I want to take responsibility and close this chapter in my life. I want to come back. Otherwise I wouldn’t be here today.”<\/p>\n

In separate developments, the US Securities and Exchange Commission sued Binance and Zhao in June – accusing the company of artificially inflating trading volumes, diverting customer funds, and misleading investors.<\/p>\n

This is the latest setback for the sector, which has been left reeling after a slew of controversies and hacks.<\/p>\n

Major cryptocurrencies – including Bitcoin and Ether – fell as markets digested the news.<\/p>\n

Reports also suggest that Binance customers are pulling funds from the platform.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n

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Binance CEO Changpeng Zhao steps down – and pleads guilty to criminal charges | Business News<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Binance CEO Changpeng Zhao steps down – and pleads guilty to criminal charges | Business News Binance CEO Changpeng Zhao steps down – and pleads guilty to criminal charges | Business News The founder of the world’s largest crypto exchange has stepped down – and pleaded guilty to breaking anti-money laundering laws. Changpeng Zhao’s shock […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7678],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-83310","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-estaql"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/estaql.com\/seo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/83310","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/estaql.com\/seo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/estaql.com\/seo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/estaql.com\/seo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/estaql.com\/seo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=83310"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/estaql.com\/seo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/83310\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/estaql.com\/seo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=83310"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/estaql.com\/seo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=83310"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/estaql.com\/seo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=83310"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}