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CZ pleaded guilty to violating US law by failing to run an appropriate anti-money laundering program. The administration says CZ wasn't guilty and was persecut

by _jsmh 1y ago

CZ pleaded guilty to violating US law by failing to run an appropriate anti-money laundering program. The administration says CZ wasn't guilty and was persecuted by the previous administration. https://x.com/WatcherGuru/status/1981457002921677059 https://x.com/WatcherGuru/status/1981457002921677059 What really happened here?

dc396 1y ago
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pay-to-play https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pay-to-play
verdverm 1y ago
Here's a video that goes through the sequence of events https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JMEJTORMVN4 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JMEJTORMVN4
Yeul 1y ago
People got what they voted for.
pants2 1y ago
It's difficult to defend CZ/Binance from a guilty verdict. I'll go purely on exact quotes that the US investigation dug up from Binance internal comms: > As one compliance employee wrote, “we need a banner ‘is washing drug money too hard these days - come to binance we got cake for you.’” “our stance is [n]ot to openly do business with Iran due to sanctions. … I understand that we still support [I]ranian customers but that has to be done non-openly.” “we are servicing [them] but non-public. … [the CEO of Binance] knows also. And allows it.” Message from the CCO to the CEO: “we currently have users from sanction[ed] countries … if fincen or ofac has concrete evidence we have sanction[ed] users, they might try to investigate or blow it up big on worldstage.” https://www.justice.gov/archives/opa/pr/binance-and-ceo-plead-guilty-federal-charges-4b-resolution https://www.justice.gov/archives/opa/pr/binance-and-ceo-plea...
- pants2 1y ago
  HOWEVER, if I had to steelman the "unfairly persecuted" argument, I'd say that the $4B fine + prison sentence was much harsher than what the DOJ did to traditional banks engaging in the same thing. HSBC, Deutsche Bank, Standard Chartered, JPMorgan, and others have all been found guilty of similar AML violations, possibly for more serious offences, and NOBODY went to prison, and the fines were much smaller. So while the fines/jail were much harsher on Binance than other tradfi offenders, I think most would have rather seen someone from HSBC go to jail for laundering cartel money, vs CZ getting pardoned. But if the 'ol "slap on the wrist" treated crypto similarly to tradfi, CZ would not have gone to jail - i.e. Binance was unfairly targeted by the previous administration.
  - SvenL 1y ago
    Interesting, do you have sources for the cases with the traditional banks?
Gigachad 1y ago
Financial crime is legal in the US now as long as you share some with the president.

by _jsmh 1y ago

dc396 1y ago

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pay-to-play https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pay-to-play

verdverm 1y ago

Here's a video that goes through the sequence of events https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JMEJTORMVN4 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JMEJTORMVN4

Yeul 1y ago

People got what they voted for.

pants2 1y ago

It's difficult to defend CZ/Binance from a guilty verdict. I'll go purely on exact quotes that the US investigation dug up from Binance internal comms: > As one compliance employee wrote, “we need a banner ‘is washing drug money too hard these days - come to binance we got cake for you.’” “our stance is [n]ot to openly do business with Iran due to sanctions. … I understand that we still support [I]ranian customers but that has to be done non-openly.” “we are servicing [them] but non-public. … [the CEO of Binance] knows also. And allows it.” Message from the CCO to the CEO: “we currently have users from sanction[ed] countries … if fincen or ofac has concrete evidence we have sanction[ed] users, they might try to investigate or blow it up big on worldstage.” https://www.justice.gov/archives/opa/pr/binance-and-ceo-plead-guilty-federal-charges-4b-resolution https://www.justice.gov/archives/opa/pr/binance-and-ceo-plea...

pants2 1y ago
HOWEVER, if I had to steelman the "unfairly persecuted" argument, I'd say that the $4B fine + prison sentence was much harsher than what the DOJ did to traditional banks engaging in the same thing. HSBC, Deutsche Bank, Standard Chartered, JPMorgan, and others have all been found guilty of similar AML violations, possibly for more serious offences, and NOBODY went to prison, and the fines were much smaller. So while the fines/jail were much harsher on Binance than other tradfi offenders, I think most would have rather seen someone from HSBC go to jail for laundering cartel money, vs CZ getting pardoned. But if the 'ol "slap on the wrist" treated crypto similarly to tradfi, CZ would not have gone to jail - i.e. Binance was unfairly targeted by the previous administration.
- SvenL 1y ago
  Interesting, do you have sources for the cases with the traditional banks?

Gigachad 1y ago

Financial crime is legal in the US now as long as you share some with the president.