Binance founder Zhao Changpeng pardoned by Trump in latest crypto clemency
Zhao served a four-month sentence in 2024 after pleading guilty to failing to safeguard anti-money-laundering measures at Binance
Binance co-founder Zhao Changpeng has received a pardon from US President Donald Trump after he went to prison for failing to safeguard the world’s largest crypto exchange against money laundering.
“President Trump exercised his constitutional authority by issuing a pardon for Mr Zhao, who was prosecuted by the Biden administration in their war on cryptocurrency,” said White House spokeswoman Karoline Leavitt.
Zhao wrote in a social media post that he was “deeply grateful for today’s pardon and to President Trump for upholding America’s commitment to fairness, innovation, and justice”.
“Will do everything we can to help make America the Capital of Crypto,” Zhao added.
The guilty plea was part of a broader deal struck with the US government, which included a US$4.3 billion settlement with Binance.
According to authorities at the time, the lack of safeguards under Zhao’s leadership allowed figures associated with the military wing of Hamas, hackers and money launderers to trade on the exchange.
Between 2018 and 2022, Binance processed at least 1.1 million transactions that violated US sanctions, worth about US$898 million, according to the government’s case.
Zhao has deep ties to World Liberty Financial, a cryptocurrency venture that Trump and his sons Eric and Donald Jnr launched in September.
Trump’s most recent financial disclosure report reveals he made more than US$57 million last year from World Liberty Financial, which has launched USD1, a stablecoin pegged at a 1-to-1 ratio to the US dollar.
World Liberty Financial also recently announced that an investment fund in the United Arab Emirates would be using US$2 billion worth of USD1 to buy a stake in Binance.
Zhao, who has publicly said that he had asked Trump for a pardon that could nullify his conviction, has a net worth of US$54.5 billion, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index.
Additional reporting by Associated Press
Satellite photo shows White House East Wing reduced to rubble for Trump ballroom
The complete demolition - a far more extensive move than initially planned - was finalised as the price tag for the giant new facility hit US$300 million
Demolition workers have finished tearing down the White House’s entire East Wing to make way for US President Donald Trump’s giant new US$300 million ballroom, satellite pictures showed on Thursday.
The completion of the wrecking work came as the White House released a list of donors to the ballroom including Apple, Google and Meta.
A grey and brown patch of rubble could be seen in the area that used to be occupied by the iconic building, according to the images shared by Planet Labs PBC and dated Thursday.
Satellite photos taken just under a month earlier show the wing that housed the offices of the US first lady intact.
The complete destruction of part of one of the world’s most famous landmarks was a far more extensive demolition than previously announced by Trump - and happened virtually without warning.
When the former property magnate unveiled his plans in July, Trump said that the 90,000 sq ft ballroom “won’t interfere with the current building” and that it would be “near it but not touching it”.
But after work started this week, Trump said on Wednesday that he had decided after consulting architects that “really knocking it down” was preferable to a partial demolition.
He has insisted that the 1,000-seat ballroom was essential because state dinners and other large events currently have to be held in tents temporarily erected on the White House lawn.
Trump also said that the new ballroom would cost US$300 million, raising the cost from the US$250 million quoted by the White House days before, and the US$200 million it cited in July.
White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said in a briefing that US$300 million was now the definitive number but said that “it’s not going to cost the taxpayers a dime”.
Billionaire Trump said the ballroom would be funded entirely by private donors and by himself.
The White House released a list of the donors to Agence France-Presse on Thursday. They include US tech titans Amazon, Apple, Google, Meta and Palantir, as well as defence giant Lockheed Martin.
Individual donors include the family of Trump’s Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick and twins Cameron and Tyler Winklevoss, who were made famous as jilted investors in the movie The Social Network about the birth of Facebook.
“How much am I donating? I won’t be able to tell you until it’s finished,” Trump told reporters on Thursday. “I’ll donate whatever’s needed, I’ll tell you that.”
Many US presidents have carried out upgrades to the White House but Trump’s ballroom is the biggest in more than a century.
While lower profile than the West Wing where the president works, the East Wing had stood in one form or another for 123 years since the presidency of Theodore Roosevelt.
It received a major makeover in 1942 from President Franklin Roosevelt and was until this week home to the first lady’s offices. It was also the main point of entry for guests for tours and parties.
As criticism mounted about the demolition, the White House Historical Association - an independent group that helps preserve the history of the presidential home - said it had been helping with preservation work.
The association had carried out a “comprehensive digital scanning project and photography to create a historic record,” it said in an email to members.
It added that “historic artefacts have been preserved and stored”.
Trump’s wrecking of the East Wing has provoked howls of outrage led by his Democratic opponents, including former first lady and 2016 presidential election rival Hillary Clinton.
Another top US historic group, however, the National Trust for Historic Preservation, had urged Trump to pause the demolition.
It said in a letter on Tuesday that it was “deeply concerned that the massing and height of the proposed new construction will overwhelm the White House itself” and urged the plans be put before the agency that oversees work on government buildings in Washington.
The White House argued that Trump had the authority to go ahead with the demolition without needing the agency’s sign-off.
