... He resigned as the CEO in November 2023 after the U.S Department of Justice alleged he violated the Bank Secrecy Act and the International Emergency Economic Powers Act.[4] He pleaded guilty and was sentenced to four months in prison in April 2024.[4][5] Zhao completed his sentence by September of the same year.[6] In October 2025, Zhao was given a presidential pardon by President Donald Trump.[7] The pardon was given amid extensive business dealings between Binance and World Liberty Financial, a cryptocurrency company owned by the Trump family.[8] ...
Civil lawsuits
On March 27, 2023, the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) filed a lawsuit against Binance and Zhao in the United States District Court for the Northern District of Illinois, claiming willful evasion of US law and allegedly breaching derivatives rules.[26][27] The agency accused Binance of breaking rules intended to thwart money laundering operations,[28] pointing to internal communications describing transactions by Palestinian militant organization Hamas and suspected criminals.[26]
In June 2023, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) sued Zhao and Binance on 13 charges for alleged violations of US securities rules.[29][30][31]
In November 2024, FTX filed a lawsuit against Binance Holdings Ltd., Zhao, and other Binance executives, seeking to recover nearly $1.8 billion that FTX alleges was fraudulently transferred. The case centers on a July 2021 stock repurchase transaction in which Binance sold its stakes"approximately 20% of FTX's international unit and 18.4% of its U.S.-based entity"to FTX co-founder Sam Bankman-Fried.[32]
Criminal allegations and sanctions
In November 2023, Zhao agreed to resign from Binance and pay a $50 million fine as part of a guilty plea to U.S. federal charges. Binance also agreed to plead guilty, and to pay $4.3 billion in fines.[4][33] Zhao was replaced as CEO by Richard Teng.[34]
Zhao pled guilty to violating the American Bank Secrecy Act by prioritizing Binance's growth over compliance with the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network's anti-money laundering requirements.[35] Although Zhao only personally pled guilty to a single criminal charge, as part of plea bargain negotiations, Zhao agreed for Binance to also admit to operating an unlicensed money transmitting business and to violating the International Emergency Economic Powers Act.[4] Zhao's defense attorneys noted that BitMEX founder Arthur Hayes only received probation for a similar crime and argued that Zhao's ineligibility for minimum-security imprisonment put his safety at risk.[36][37]
In April 2024, Zhao was sentenced to four months in prison after pleading guilty to charges of enabling money laundering at his crypto exchange at a federal court in Seattle.[38] He served his sentence at the Federal Correctional Institution, Lompoc I.[39] According to records with the United States Federal Bureau of Prisons (BOP), Zhao was released from custody on September 27, 2024.[40]
Pardon by President Donald Trump
In March 2025, The Wall Street Journal uncovered that Binance was in talks with the family of Donald Trump about business dealings.[41]
In August 2025, The Wall Street Journal found that Binance was quietly administering a trading platform for the Trump family's World Liberty Financial.[42]
That same month, the New York Times reported that Zhao was campaigning to receive a pardon from President Trump.[43]
This was granted by Trump on October 23, 2025.[7] White House spokesperson Karoline Leavitt gave the following explanation for the pardon:[44] ...
