Former Binance chief executive Changpeng Zhao has been sentenced to four months in jail after pleading guilty to failing to establish adequate money laundering controls at the world’s largest cryptocurrency exchange.
The 47-year-old, known in the crypto world as CZ, surrendered to US authorities in November. He agreed to resign as head of Binance, which he founded in 2017, while the exchange paid $4.3bn for failing to halt transactions that financed terrorist groups Hamas and al-Qaeda and sanctioned entities in Iran and Russia, among other violations.
Appearing in federal court in Seattle on Tuesday, Zhao expressed regret for not introducing tougher “know your customer” policies at Binance, according to media reports.