U.S. prosecutors are asking for a sentence of 36 months, or 3 years, for the former CEO of Binance, a cryptocurrency exchange. They say he should get more than the suggested 12 to 18 months because of the seriousness of his crimes.
They believe a 3-year sentence would show how serious his actions were, make people respect the law, and discourage others from doing the same.
The prosecutors accuse him of not setting up a good system to stop money laundering, as required by the Bank Secrecy Act. They also say he let Binance handle transactions with illegal money, including those from Americans and people in countries facing sanctions.
Binance is facing lawsuits from the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission and the Commodity Futures Trading Commission.
They say Binance mishandled customer money and ran an illegal exchange in the U.S. The U.S. government has ordered Binance to pay $4.3 billion in fines, while the former CEO agreed to pay a $50 million fine.
The former CEO, Zhao, quit his job in November after agreeing to pay the fine. Binance replaced him with Richard Teng, who used to work for the Abu Dhabi markets regulator. Zhao hasn’t commented yet, and Binance hasn’t replied to the request for comment.
Prosecutors claim that Zhao broke U.S. laws on a huge scale, something never seen before. They say he showed a complete lack of care for Binance’s legal duties.
In their statement on Tuesday, prosecutors said that under Zhao’s leadership, Binance operated like the “Wild West,” with little control.
They say Zhao thought he wouldn’t get caught, and even if he did, the punishment wouldn’t be severe. But he did get caught, and now the court will decide what punishment he should face.
Zhao’s official sentencing is scheduled for April 30th.
