“President Trump exercised his constitutional authority by issuing a pardon for Mr. Zhao, who was prosecuted by the Biden Administration in their war on cryptocurrency,” White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt said in a statement.
Zhao, in November 2023, pleaded guilty in the case and agreed to step down as Binance CEO as part of a $4.3 billion settlement by the company with the Department of Justice.
He was sentenced in April 2024 to just four months in jail.
Federal prosecutors had asked a judge to sentence Zhao to three years in prison.
Trump’s pardon of Zhao came nearly a week after he commuted the 87-month prison sentence of former New York Rep. George Santos, who had pleaded guilty to wire fraud and aggravated identity theft.
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