A US judge last month denied the Binance founder and former CEO Changpeng ‘CZ' Zhao's request to travel to the United Arab Emirates despite offering $4.5 billion as collateral to return Binance's US equity.
According to a court filing this week, Zhao's lawyers requested that he be allowed to travel to the United Arab Emirates in December 2023 to attend an unnamed “hospital and surgery” in Abu Dhabi.
Binance's founding legal team, including equity in Binance US, offered Zhao to provide “significant additional assets and financial security to ensure a timely return,” including “$4.5 billion in the last round of fundraising 2 years ago.”
Binance's founder pleaded guilty in November 2023 to failing to maintain an effective anti-money laundering program at the crypto exchange and agreed to step down as Binance's CEO in a deal with the US Department of Justice.
Zhao faces 10 to 18 months in prison under federal sentencing guidelines. As part of the settlement, Binance was forced to withdraw from the US market and pay $4.3 billion in fines for AML and fines violations.
In the year In December 2023, a federal judge ordered Zhao to remain in the United States pending sentencing, citing his “substantial wealth and assets abroad” and no ties to the United States.
Prosecutors have argued that Zhao is a flight risk: Zhao is a non-U.S. citizen but a United Arab Emirates citizen who has “substantial assets outside the United States, has few ties to the United States, and resides in a country that does not have an extradition treaty with the United States.”
Edited by Stacy Elliott.
Stay on top of crypto news, get daily updates in your inbox.
