[HN Gopher] Binance founder Changpeng Zhao sentenced to four mon...
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Binance founder Changpeng Zhao sentenced to four months in prison
Author : SirLJ
Score : 26 points
Date : 2024-04-30 19:17 UTC (3 hours ago)
(HTM) web link (www.cnbc.com)
(TXT) w3m dump (www.cnbc.com)
| koolba wrote:
| > Binance's billionaire founder Changpeng Zhao was sentenced to
| four months in prison on Tuesday, after pleading guilty to
| charges of enabling money laundering at his crypto exchange.
|
| Will CZ be the richest person ever sent to Federal prison? Forbes
| says his networth is $33 billion (though given crypto volatility
| that could be anywhere from 1/10 to 10x that on a daily
| basis...).
|
| Imagine the security protocols for something like that. For sure
| he's not going to be the general population.
| latchkey wrote:
| > _Will CZ be the richest person ever sent to Federal prison?_
|
| Maybe because no bank execs ever go to jail?
| gvhst wrote:
| Even if bank execs went to jail CZ is still wealthier
| blackhawkC17 wrote:
| No U.S. bank executive is worth over $30 billion.
| latchkey wrote:
| select sum(us_bank_executives) where year >= 2007
| blackhawkC17 wrote:
| The wealthiest American banker should be Andy Beal ($10
| billion+), and that's because he wholly owns a big bank
| [1].
|
| For reference, Jamie Dimon has been CEO of JP Morgan
| (America's largest bank) for nearly two decades and
| controls $1 billion in shares. Yeah, they're all mega-
| rich, but there's a big difference between someone having
| $1 billion and $30 billion. The latter can spend the
| former's entire assets in a year and still become
| wealthier over time.
|
| 1- https://www.forbes.com/profile/andrew-
| beal/?sh=468364783067
| latchkey wrote:
| Beal is a standout cause he actually predicted and
| prepared for the mess.
|
| https://www.forbes.com/2009/04/03/banking-andy-beal-
| business...
|
| You're still pointing out individuals. In my eyes, the
| sum of the whole lot should have gone to jail long ago.
| Dimon and a whole bunch of other execs with him.
| mtmail wrote:
| Charles Schwab is also said to be worth $10 billion.
| exe34 wrote:
| Not officially anyway, if their money is in tax havens.
| segmondy wrote:
| He's going to club feds. It's not even a prison, there's no
| fence you can literally walk away if you're stupid. Easiest
| prison time ever, no need for any crazy security protocol, he
| will be in there with non violent offenders, plenty in for
| financial crime, etc.
| gnabgib wrote:
| (edit) Seems the discussion is here vs
| https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=40215052
| htrp wrote:
| >"Zhao bet that he would not get caught, and that if he did, the
| consequences would not be as serious as the crime," the
| memorandum stated. "But Zhao was caught, and now the Court will
| decide what price Zhao should pay for his crimes."
|
| 4 months, 50mn in personal fines, and 4.3bn in fines by Binance
| corporate.
| blackhawkC17 wrote:
| CZ is wise, the opposite of SBF. He willingly pled guilty and got
| to keep his Binance majority stake worth tens of billions. He
| didn't run his mouth endlessly and gift a case to prosecutors
| like SBF did. Most importantly, he let people trade shady
| shitcoins but never stole customer funds. He'll spend just four
| months in a minimum security prison, come out and sail into the
| sunset with his billions. If you make things easy for
| prosecutors, especially as a first-time offender, they'll make
| things easy for you.
|
| I don't admire crypto, but CZ played his cards well. Bloomberg
| quipped that he'll hold the title of richest inmate in the US,
| lol
| throwup238 wrote:
| _> He 'll spend just four months in a minimum security prison_
|
| Probably on work release during the day.
|
| It's not even a time out. He's just going off to sleep at
| summer camp for a few months.
| ai_what wrote:
| CZ also came to the US willingly as opposed to Do Kwon who went
| on the run.
| floor2 wrote:
| > Most importantly, he let people trade shady shitcoins but
| never stole customer funds
|
| This undersells his crimes and overstates SBFs. The head of
| compliance for Binance sent a freakin text message to a peer
| saying "We're operating an unlicensed broker in the US, bro"
| along with numerous communications about intentionally
| facilitating money laundering, sanctions evasions and a host of
| other securities law violations.
|
| SBF, based on what was published in Michael Lewis' "Going
| Infinite", didn't really steal customer funds, he just did a
| negligently bad job of running the bank of crypto. When you put
| money into your checking account, the bank doesn't hold it in a
| vault, they re-lend it out as mortgages and car loans and small
| business loans. They just do it competently, and under the
| scrutiny of bank regulators and insurers. FTX was an
| unregulated crypto bank in the bahamas that did conceptually
| the same thing, just without any prudent risk management, due
| diligence or even reliable record keeping. But the customers
| were cool with that, because crypto and number go up.
| JumpCrisscross wrote:
| > _along with numerous communications about intentionally
| facilitating money laundering, sanctions evasions and a host
| of other securities law violations_
|
| He turned himself in, plead guilty and presumably provided
| law enforcement with a decade's worth of easy convictions.
| I'm not convinced Zhao will be a pest on release. I'm not
| convinced SBF won't be even half a century on.
|
| > _didn 't really steal customer funds, he just did a
| negligently bad job of running the bank of crypto_
|
| No, he absolutely stole the money. Lending yourself money
| from the coffers is embezzling, full stop. It also seems
| clear he knew what he was doing was wrong, given the bizarre
| series of lies and obfuscation that he started making before
| being indicted and while on the stand.
| blackhawkC17 wrote:
| > When you put money into your checking account, the bank
| doesn't hold it in a vault, they re-lend it out as mortgages
| and car loans and small business loans. They just do it
| competently, and under the scrutiny of bank regulators and
| insurers.
|
| A bank CEO can definitely not lend customers' money to
| themselves with fake assets (shitty tokens) as collateral,
| likely without intention to repay. SBF was a _thief_ , full
| stop.
| nikcub wrote:
| Related Roger Ver was also indicted and arrested today:
|
| https://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/early-bitcoin-investor-charge...
|
| The real crime there was selling 131k Bitcoin at ~$800 in order
| to back Bitcoin Cash. That's a ~$7B upside he missed because of
| block size politics.
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