Binance and Zhao to plead guilty, pay $6b in fines
afr.comWashington | Binance Holdings and CEO Changpeng Zhao have pleaded guilty to criminal charges for anti-money laundering and US sanctions violations, including allowing transactions with Hamas and other terrorist groups, under a sweeping deal with the Justice department designed to keep the company operating.
Binance agreed to plead guilty to criminal charges and pay over $US4 billion ($6.1 billion) in penalties. Mr Zhao, who agreed to step down and pay a $US50 million fine as part of the settlement, appeared in court in Seattle on Tuesday (Wednesday AEDT) to plead guilty.
The deal, which includes the Treasury Department and the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, ends a years-long investigation into the cryptocurrency exchange.
Binance chief Changpeng Zhao. Bloomberg
In a document unsealed on Tuesday, Binance was charged with three counts, including money laundering violations, conspiracy to conduct an unlicensed money transmitting business, and US sanctions violations. Binance is paying a criminal fine of $US1.8 billion and forfeiting $US2.5 billion.
Binance’s violations included failure to prevent and report suspicious transactions with terrorists, including Hamas’ Al-Qassam Brigades, Palestinian Islamic Jihad, Al-Qaeda, and the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria, according to the Treasury department. The announcement comes as Israel is fighting Hamas, which launched a murderous cross-border raid killing more than 1200 Israelis on October 7.
Binance allowed at least 1.1 million transactions, worth more than $US898 million, involving customers in Iran, according to the court filing.
“Binance became the world’s largest cryptocurrency exchange in part because of the crimes it committed – now it’s paying one of the largest
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