Today, Donald Trump pardoned Changpeng Zhao, the convicted founder of the crypto exchange Binance, who pleaded guilty to money-laundering violations in 2023. Binance built ties with World Liberty Financial, the Trump family’s crypto start-up, which is expected to bring the Trumps tens of millions of dollars a year. To secure a pardon, Mr. Zhao hired Ches McDowell, a lawyer, lobbyist and longtime hunting companion of Donald Trump Jr. Just last week, McDowell and Don Jr. were spotted together at the White House.

In response, DNC Rapid Response Director Kendall Witmer released the following statement: 

“Donald Trump’s corruption is outrageously brazen. Let’s get this straight: Zhao was convicted for money laundering after he admitted that he failed to uphold compliance laws, which resulted in sanctioned countries and terrorist groups moving money through his crypto platform, Binance. Then, Binance partnered with the Trump family’s crypto start-up, and Zhao hired Don Jr.’s buddy — and now, Zhao gets a sudden pardon from Trump. Trump only cares about enriching himself and rewarding his loyalists — even if that means pardoning criminals — while everyday Americans get left in the dust. Trump and his family have already made over $3.4 billion off the presidency — but he’ll continue to sell out the American people if it means making an extra buck.”

Trump Pardons Convicted Binance Founder

By Rebecca Ballhaus, Josh Dawsey, Patricia Kowsmann, and Angus Berwick.

• President Trump has pardoned Changpeng Zhao, the convicted founder of the crypto exchange Binance, according to people familiar with the matter, following months of efforts by Zhao to boost the Trump family’s own crypto company.
• A pardon will likely pave the way for Binance, the world’s largest crypto exchange, to return to the U.S. after the company pleaded guilty in 2023 to violating U.S. anti-money-laundering requirements and was barred from operating in the country.
• Since Trump’s election, Binance has also been a key supporter of his family’s World Liberty Financial crypto venture, a business that has driven a huge leap in the president’s personal wealth.
• The Justice Department imposed a record $4.3 billion fine and burdensome oversight on Binance, which the department said had become a colossal money-laundering hub through which sanctioned groups and criminal organizations laundered billions of dollars in illicit funds.
• The pardon may also prematurely end the Justice Department’s three-year Binance monitorship, set up to ensure the company complies with U.S. financial crime laws.
• Binance executives met with Treasury officials this spring to discuss loosening U.S. oversight on the company, which has lost ground over its rivals due to its legal troubles, The Wall Street Journal previously reported.
• Binance first reached out to allies of Trump last year, offering to strike a business deal with the family as part of a plan to return the company to the U.S., the Journal reported earlier this year. Representatives of the Trump family have held talks to take a financial stake in the U.S. arm of Binance.
• Binance has been one of the main drivers of the growth of World Liberty’s dollar-pegged cryptocurrency, called USD1. It delivered World Liberty’s first big break this spring when it accepted a $2 billion investment from an outside investor paid in USD1. Binance has also incentivized trading in USD1 across platforms it controls.
• Zhao is the latest crypto executive to receive a pardon from Trump. In March, the president pardoned Arthur Hayes, a co-founder of the crypto exchange BitMEX who had pleaded guilty to violating anti-money-laundering laws.

Trump Pardons Founder of the Crypto Exchange Binance

By David Yaffe-Bellany and Kenneth P. Vogel. 

• The pardon was the latest example of how high-profile business partners of Mr. Trump and his family have benefited from his rollback of the wide-ranging crypto crackdown orchestrated by President Joseph R. Biden Jr. To seek the pardon, Mr. Zhao hired lawyers and lobbyists with ties to the Trump administration, while Binance struck a business deal with World Liberty Financial, the Trump family’s crypto start-up.
• That deal alone is poised to generate tens of millions of dollars a year for the Trumps and the family of Steve Witkoff, the president’s top Middle East adviser.
• Mr. Trump has granted clemency to several other prominent crypto executives, including Ross Ulbricht, who ran the Bitcoin-fueled drug marketplace Silk Road. And since Mr. Trump took office, regulators have dropped lawsuits against Coinbase and other large crypto firms.
• Long considered the crypto industry’s richest man, Mr. Zhao — a Chinese-born executive who now lives in the United Arab Emirates — admitted that he had violated the law by failing to install rigorous compliance systems at Binance. That allowed people in sanctioned countries and terrorist groups like Hamas, Al Qaeda and the Islamic State to move money on his platform.
• Now he could have an opportunity to retake direct control of the exchange. The pardon could also make it easier for Binance to establish a presence in the U.S. market and challenge domestic exchanges like Coinbase and Kraken.
• “This is yet another example of the administration’s brazen flouting of the rule of law,” said Eswar Prasad, an economics professor at Cornell University who has been critical of the crypto industry. “There is little justification for this pardon and highlights how far this administration will go to promote the cryptocurrency industry.”
• To spearhead his clemency push, Mr. Zhao hired Teresa Goody Guillén, a former Securities and Exchange Commission lawyer who also represents Zach Witkoff, the son of Mr. Trump’s Middle East adviser. Working alongside Ms. Goody Guillén was Ches McDowell, a lawyer and lobbyist who is a longtime hunting companion of Donald Trump Jr. Mr. McDowell was spotted with the president’s son at the White House last week.
• At the same time, Binance forged a partnership with World Liberty Financial, the crypto company founded by the Trump and Witkoff families. In May, Zach Witkoff announced that Binance would receive a $2 billion investment in the form of a cryptocurrency called USD1 that World Liberty had developed.