Binance co-founder Changpeng “CZ” Zhao’s lawyer has denied that he somehow paid for US President Donald Trump’s pardon.
Appearing on Anthony Pompliano’s “Pomp Podcast” on Friday, CZ’s personal attorney, Teresa Goody Guillén, described the criticism surrounding CZ’s pardon as “a pile of false statements.”
“The media continues to call World Liberty a Trump company, and I haven’t seen anything to show me that’s true,” she said, adding:
“People are making these assumptions that just show a fundamental misunderstanding of how business works or blockchain works.”
CZ spent four months in prison in 2024 and had to withdraw from Binance due to allegations related to the company’s failure to establish anti-money laundering protocols.
The former Binance CEO was pardoned by Donald Trump in October, with the president declaring that what got CZ locked up was “not a crime.”
Critics of the move, including Democratic Senator Elizabeth Warren, labeled the pardon “corruption” because CZ “boosted” one of Trump’s crypto ventures and “lobbied for a pardon.”
The former Binance CEO shot back that she couldn’t “get her facts straight.”
Responding to Warren’s claims, Guillén questioned the immunity granted to US politicians, as she criticized Warren for falsely claiming that CZ was convicted of a crime “of which he was not convicted”, with allegations of additional “criminal liability” against him for the pardon.
“This is actually an area that I hope we pay a little more attention to because you know, the immunity that’s been given to these people is not what our founding fathers wanted,” she said.
The pardon was “justice”, claims CZ’s lawyer
During an appearance on Pompliano’s podcast, Guillén claimed that CZ was “pardoned for the sake of justice,” as she argued that CZ has become a scapegoat for the war on cryptocurrencies, while pointing to the lack of jail time in traditional finance for executives involved in similar legal matters.
Related: CZ says he was surprised by the pardon, denies ties to the Trump familyMr
“He is the only person who has ever been prosecuted and worse, sent to prison on this particular charge or anything like it with characteristics like no fraud and no victims, no criminal history or anything like that,” she said, adding:
“I think it was part of the war on crypto, and at that point, this was close after the collapse of FTX and I think the war in crypto had to go against someone, and they had to prosecute and really prosecute someone. And unfortunately, Binance and CZ ended that.”
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