Donald Trump further blurs the line between his private financial interests and his role as president of the United States each day. On Thursday, October 23, he once again exercised his presidential pardon power, this time in favor of Changpeng Zhao, the founder of cryptocurrency exchange Binance.
In recent months, the company has played a significant role in supporting the development of World Liberty Financial, a firm that created its own cryptocurrency backed by the US dollar and in which the Trump family holds a majority stake. This digital business is now worth billions and has overtaken real estate, the Trump family’s traditional core business.
Asked about the potential conflict of interest, the US president claimed Zhao had been «persecuted by the Biden administration.» Trump added, «A lot of people say he wasn’t guilty of anything. I don’t know him, I don’t believe I’ve ever met him.»
Money laundering
The founder of Binance was jailed in 2024 for four months before being released as part of a plea deal. He had been accused of allowing large sums of money to be laundered through his cryptocurrency platform. «The Biden administration’s war on crypto is over,» summarized the White House press secretary, Karoline Leavitt, in a statement on Thursday. In March, three other figures in the sector, sentenced for violating the Bank Secrecy Act, received similar favorable treatment.
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