{"id":86986,"date":"2026-04-27T17:16:35","date_gmt":"2026-04-27T17:16:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dogewisperer.com\/?p=86986"},"modified":"2026-04-27T17:16:35","modified_gmt":"2026-04-27T17:16:35","slug":"binance-co-founder-chose-prison-and-says-trump-pardon-vindicated-him","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dogewisperer.com\/?p=86986","title":{"rendered":"Binance Co-Founder &#8216;Chose Prison&#8217;\u2014And Says Trump Pardon Vindicated Him"},"content":{"rendered":"<div>\n<p>Former <strong>Binance<\/strong> <a href=\"https:\/\/www.benzinga.com\/quote\/BNB-USD\" target=\"_blank\" class=\"ticker-link\" data-ticker=\"BNB\" data-exchange=\"CRYPTO\" rel=\"noopener\">(CRYPTO: <\/a><a class=\"ticker\" href=\"https:\/\/www.benzinga.com\/quote\/bnb\/usd\">BNB<\/a>) CEO <strong>Changpeng Zhao<\/strong> released his memoir \u201cFreedom of Money\u201d globally, revealing he voluntarily faced DOJ charges to protect Binance and the crypto industry.<\/p>\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Why He Came To The U.S.<\/h3>\n<p>Zhao was living in the UAE, a non-extradition state, and could have stayed there indefinitely.<\/p>\n<p>However, he chose to face charges because staying away would have severely damaged Binance, hurt BNB holders, and negatively impacted the broader crypto industry.<\/p>\n<p>Zhao <a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=ofg-7vC_dr0&amp;t=327s\">said<\/a> he didn\u2019t expect to go to jail. His lawyers couldn\u2019t find a single case where a single BSA violation landed someone in prison.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>He expected home confinement at worst, similar to what former BitMEX CEO <strong>Arthur Hayes<\/strong> received.<\/p>\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\">The Sentencing Shock<\/h3>\n<p>The DOJ asked for 36 months just one week before Zhao\u2019s April 30, 2024 sentencing hearing.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>His lawyer called the request outrageous\u2014even under the most severe sentencing guidelines, his sentence should have been 10 to 16 months.<\/p>\n<p>The judge &#8230;<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.benzinga.com\/crypto\/cryptocurrency\/26\/04\/52072449\/binance-co-founder-chose-prison-and-says-trump-pardon-vindicated-him?utm_source=benzinga_taxonomy&amp;utm_medium=rss_feed_free&amp;utm_content=taxonomy_rss&amp;utm_campaign=channel\" alt=\"Binance\" co-founder prison says trump pardon vindicated him>Full story available on Benzinga.com<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Former Binance (CRYPTO: BNB) CEO Changpeng Zhao released his memoir \u201cFreedom of Money\u201d globally, revealing he voluntarily faced DOJ charges to protect Binance and the crypto industry. Why He Came To The U.S. Zhao was living in the UAE, a non-extradition state, and could have stayed there indefinitely. However, he chose to face charges because [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"iawp_total_views":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[3,4,5],"class_list":["post-86986","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news","tag-crypto","tag-doge","tag-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dogewisperer.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/86986","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dogewisperer.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dogewisperer.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dogewisperer.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dogewisperer.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=86986"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dogewisperer.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/86986\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dogewisperer.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=86986"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dogewisperer.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=86986"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dogewisperer.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=86986"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}