US prosecutors are reportedly pushing a federal judge to accept crypto exchange Binance’s plea deal.
In November 2023, the largest global cryptocurrency exchange was fined $4.3 billion by the US Department of Justice (DOJ) to settle a multi-year investigation.
Changpeng Zhao, the controversial CEO of Binance, said he would plead guilty to violating US anti-money laundering laws and step down as CEO.
A sentencing memo filed last week in a federal court in Seattle indicates that prosecutors want the judge on the case to accept the plea deal, according to a new report from Bloomberg.
Prosecutors argue the penalties are appropriate as Binance committed “intentional” misconduct that caused “hundreds of millions of dollars in collateral consequences.”
According to CNBC, Zhao’s sentencing hearing was recently postponed until April 30.
Last month, a former hostage and several relatives of the victims of the October 7 Hamas attack on Israel sued the stock exchange for allegedly providing the terrorist group with a financing mechanism. The lawsuit accuses Binance of processing numerous transactions for Hamas between 2017 and 2023.
In June 2023, the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) accused Binance and Zhao of selling unregistered securities, misleading investors about their security protocols, and diverting funds from customers. The SEC also tried to freeze the assets of the exchange’s American arm, Binance.US.
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