Teresa Goody Guillén, Changpeng Zhao’s private lawyer, denied pay-to-play allegations surrounding the Binance founder’s presidential pardon.
Abstract
- CZ’s lawyer says pay-to-play allegations are baseless and fueled by unverified studies.
- Guillén stresses CZ confronted regulatory prices solely, with no fraud, victims, or laundering.
- Lawyer rejects claims linking CZ’s pardon to Trump-related crypto ventures.
In a podcast interview with Anthony Pompliano, Guillén addressed critiques linking the pardon to Binance’s dealings with World Liberty Monetary and different Trump-connected entities.
Guillén defined that Zhao, aka CZ, was charged with Binance’s failure to implement anti-money laundering compliance packages, not cash laundering itself.
“This can be a regulatory infraction. There’s no cash laundering concerned,” she stated. The lawyer argued CZ by no means ought to have been prosecuted.
Studies primarily based on unverified sources, Binance founder lawyer claims
Guillén described the corruption allegations as “a pile-up of loads of false statements, misstatements, generally assumptions.”
She challenged reporters to confirm their sources and famous that media shops cite different media studies with out strong proof.
“You’ll see a media report, citing a media report, citing a media report, and there’s no foundation for it aside from sources which can be near any person, which is type of code for not a powerful supply,” Guillén said.
The lawyer disputed claims that World Liberty Monetary is “Trump’s firm,” saying she hasn’t seen proof supporting this characterization.
Guillén addressed allegations about USD-1, the stablecoin World Liberty Monetary issued on the Binance chain.
“Simply because I checklist one thing on Craigslist, it doesn’t imply that I subsequently have some particular relationship with the previous CEO of Craigslist,” she stated.
She defined USD-1 exists on a number of chains, and different exchanges maintain it.
Different crypto executives acquired pardons
Guillén identified that Arthur Hayes, former BitMEX CEO, additionally acquired a pardon together with the BitMEX firm itself. Ross Ulbricht, founding father of Silk Highway, was pardoned as properly.
“We’ve been pardoning folks for, and corporations, juridical folks additionally from the start of our nation all the best way again to England,” she stated.
The lawyer famous pardons have traditionally coated each legal and civil offenses for people and entities.
When requested about secret Bitcoin funds to Trump, Guillén stated: “I do know CZ. I simply know that that will by no means occur. That’s simply not who he’s.”
Elizabeth Warren made inaccurate claims about CZ
Senator Elizabeth Warren posted on social media that CZ had been convicted of crimes he wasn’t convicted of. Warren additionally alleged CZ engaged in pay-to-play to acquire his pardon.
“You’ll be able to’t simply go and say issues about folks and allege that they violated varied crimes or dedicated varied crimes that they haven’t dedicated,” Guillén said.
CZ won’t return to Binance, which nonetheless faces restrictions from DOJ, CFTC, FinCEN, and OFAC. The trade has a Treasury Division monitor guaranteeing U.S. legislation compliance regardless of being banned from serving U.S. clients.
