For the accurate context:
CZ was pardoned for a single charge of failure to have an effective compliance program. No fraud, no victims, no criminal history. No money laundering.
CZ is the first and only known first-time offender in U.S. history to receive a prison sentence for this single, non-fraud-related charge. The judge found no evidence that he knew of any illicit transactions and that it was reasonable for him to believe there were no illicit funds on the platform.
Trump is a very twisted person, and this makes the US look bad, but the underlying crime was "compliance."
Sorry, this is not true. All financial institutions are required to have AML controls, which cost a lot of money.
These controls are mostly performative, but Binance wildly flouted them. This pardon means that basically no crypto company needs to worry about AML now, which is bad for the world.
The reason that nobody gets convicted for this is because they have somewhat adequate controls, whereas Binance basically welcomed money launderers with open hands.
The point being, no money laundering was pointed out to the court, although I sure this happened to some scale. Binance works with the police, before and after the conviction, it's not a laundromat like some Russian cryptocurrency exchanges.
But you are right the AML controls were weak, and CZ was convicted for this. KYC requirements arrived to Binance very late. But they were not convicted of fraud (like Sam Bankman-Fried from FTX). No users lost money. A lot of commenters get this wrong.
The US banks get slapped for similar compliance breaches all the time e.g.:
https://qz.com/bank-of-america-bofa-occ-bank-secrecy-act-bsa...
Binance also had internal communication that specifically told personnel to ignore certain AML rules and certain customers.
Compare with TD bank, that laundered money for the cartels - AFAIK nobody is in prison.
Yeah, it does seem unfair. However, it's important to note that you must have these controls, and Binance didn't. The effectiveness of these controls is not the point (sadly).
This is a super, super low bar. One can meet the BSA requirements by sending every transaction to the regulators, but Binance didn't even do that.
That should be addressed as well.
> Trump is a very twisted person, and this makes the US look bad, but the underlying crime was "compliance."
Yes.
If a CEO of any major US or EU bank would overnight decide to terminate its mere 'compliance' program, they would absolutely get convinced.
Big banks spend more than $1 billion each a year on compliance, i.e. abiding by the law. CEOs of banks that don't, get convinced, period.
It's like saying hospitals have been hiring people without credentials as doctors, or airlines hiring people with no credentials as pilots etc etc, and they were convinced for this 'compliance' issue, even though the case did not (try to) determine victims, criminal history or fraud. Yes, that's absolutely normal.
Financial institutions must put in place measures to prevent money laundering, if they don't, they get convinced, even without having to determine whether money laundering took place. Just like a hospital gets convinced if it knowingly as a policy hires people as doctors without credentials, even without having to determine if there were victims. This is completely normal.
In china the party just declares people it wants to imprison guilty. In the US we have “compliance”. Both serve the same purpose against the people.
I hope HN has a way to vouch a comment before it's flagged, because I know this one would be (for being correct.)
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then you know nothing at all about the case: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JMEJTORMVN4
I wish you would link to text rather than video. This channel owner may be very well informed, but I don't want to subject myself to the performative yelping of some guy sitting in front of a smoke machine with mood lighting. Except where original footage is concerned, video is about the worst medium for communicating complex facts the sensory stimulation is a distraction from the content. This presenter might be a genius, but I don't want to spend the time trying to untangle the substance from his hyped-up 'coffeezilla' delivery.
I had Claude reformat youtube's transcript of the video.
---
# Trump's Pardon of CZ: A Timeline of Alleged Corruption
*Author's Note:* This situation represents what appears to be straight-up corruption that everyone should oppose, regardless of political affiliation. This isn't about politics—it's about the facts.
## Background: The Original Charges
*November 21, 2023* Binance and Changpeng Zhao (CZ) both plead guilty in a historic $4 billion plea deal. They admitted to lacking proper anti-money laundering controls and willfully looking the other way. The charges specifically involved allowing terrorists, cyber criminals, and child abusers to use their platform.
*April 30, 2024* CZ is officially sentenced to four months in prison.
## The Trump Connection Begins
Shortly after sentencing, Donald Trump wins the presidency and announces the launch of *World Liberty Financial*—his major crypto project. This will become crucial to understanding the alleged corruption.
## The Suspicious Timeline
### March 12, 2025: The MGX Investment A company called MGX invests $2 billion into Binance, specifically in cryptocurrency (the exact type wasn't announced initially).
### March 13, 2025: The Wall Street Journal Report The Wall Street Journal reports that Binance has been reaching out to Trump allies since the previous year to strike a business deal with the family as part of a plan to return to the US. Possibilities included: - The Trumps taking a stake in Binance - A deal through World Liberty Financial
### March 25, 2025: USD1 Stablecoin Launch World Liberty Financial announces a stablecoin called USD1.
*Why stablecoins matter:* They're incredibly profitable because they farm yield from treasury bills while people use them. The major players are USDT and USDC. However, it's extremely difficult to launch a new stablecoin—people don't trust or use new ones easily.
### May 1, 2025: The Key Revelation The $2 billion MGX investment into Binance was conducted entirely in *USD1* (Trump's stablecoin).
*Why this matters:* - There was no reason to use USD1 instead of other currencies - They could have used BNB (Binance's own coin), which would make more sense - The only reason to use USD1 is to benefit World Liberty Financial - Stablecoins are backed by treasuries, so holding $2 billion in USD1 generates *$60-80 million per year* in risk-free revenue for World Liberty Financial (from 3-4% treasury yields)
### A Few Days Later CZ announces he has applied for a Trump pardon. *Timing: right after announcing the deal was done in USD1.*
### June 2025 World Liberty Financial announces a partnership with PancakeSwap (associated with Binance) and a $1 million reward trading campaign to increase USD1 usage.
## The AI Chips Connection
### September 15, 2025: New York Times Investigation The New York Times reveals suspicious timing around the MGX investment:
1. MGX deposited $2 billion into World Liberty Financial 2. Two weeks later, the White House agreed to allow the UAE access to hundreds of thousands of advanced AI chips 3. Many chips would go to G42, controlled by the same sheikh connected to MGX
*Official response:* The deal was "totally unrelated to any government business." But MGX clearly benefited from one side of this arrangement.
## The Polymarket Betting
### October 11, 2025 A whale linked to suspicious insider trading activity on Hyperliquid was connected to a Polymarket account called "big winner 01." This account started betting that Trump would pardon CZ by the end of 2025—a seemingly wild bet with only a couple months left in the year.
## The Pardon
### October 23, 2025 Trump pardons convicted Binance founder CZ.
*White House response:* Press Secretary Caroline Levitt claimed Trump "exercised his constitutional authority" and that CZ was "prosecuted by the Biden administration and their war on cryptocurrency."
*The reality:* The charges had nothing to do with politics. They were about anti-money laundering violations and allowing money to flow to criminals. Binance's own chief compliance officer had internal chats noting they should probably not allow money to Iran, North Korea, Syria, Cuba, and Crimea.
The Wall Street Journal reported the pardon will likely pave the way for Binance to return to the US.
## The Bottom Line
The problem isn't just loosening crypto enforcement—it's making the president's family such obvious beneficiaries:
- Nearly all of USD1's success came from this inorganic $2 billion investment - The market cap spike for USD1 directly corresponds to the Binance deal - It's a clear pay-to-play scheme happening in plain sight
*The author's conclusion:* This appears to be blatant corruption where deals were made to profit from the pardon, regardless of one's political views.
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? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JMEJTORMVN4
I don't get the outrage either.
He was sentenced to 4 months in prison. He already served that time and got out.
So what does a parden get him? No criminal record?
This pardon seems rather minor to me.
He can run Binance again.
True, but is that an injustice? Is it likely to happen?
He was accused of not having adequate know your customer compliance measures to prevent money laundering.
Not like he stolen customer funds.
It's definitely unlikely to happen again, so I'm sure he's definitely not going to run similar ~scams~ companies!