Following President Donald Trump’s pardon, former Binance CEO Changpeng Zhao is retaliating over remarks made by Senator Elizabeth Warren, and his attorney is demanding an “immediate retraction.”
This Monday, Teresa Goody Guillén, Zhao’s attorney, wrote to the top Democrat on the Senate Banking Committee, asking that allegations in a previously submitted resolution be retracted and reversed. Earlier this week Zhao was considering filing a libel lawsuit against Warren.
The Pardon of CZ
“Mr. Zhao will not remain silent while a United States Senator seemingly misuses the office to repeatedly publish defamatory statements that impugn his reputation and cause him further injury,” Goody Guillén said in a letter.
Trump pardoned Zhao this week after he admitted in 2023 that he had neglected to keep up an “effective anti-money laundering program.” In addition, Binance agreed to pay $4.3 billion as part of one of the biggest business settlements ever, and it was fined $50 million. Last year, Zhao was freed from jail.
Warren criticised the president’s action on X shortly after the pardon, claiming that Zhao had entered a guilty plea to a criminal money laundering allegation. After that, Sens. Warren and Adam Schiff submitted a resolution calling on Congress to stop “this blatant corruption.”
The events that followed
Ties between Binance and the Trump-backed DeFi project World Liberty Financial have sparked concerns, despite Zhao’s denial of a Wall Street Journal article claiming the cryptocurrency magnate had pressured the Trump administration for a pardon. According to reports, WLF had discussed purchasing a share in Binance.
The Abu Dhabi investment company MGX said that it will utilise World Liberty’s USD1 stablecoin to conclude a $2 billion deal with Binance around six weeks after reports of discussions between Trump’s team and Binance first appeared.
“Your insinuation that MGX’s equity purchase in Binance, whereby the consideration was a U.S. dollar-backed stablecoin issued by World Liberty Financial, somehow ‘enriched’ President Trump and his family is factually and economically unsound,” Goody Guillén said in the letter.
Goody Guillén served as the Securities and Exchange Commission’s litigation attorney and was once a strong candidate to head the organisation. At Baker & Hostetler LLP, she is currently a partner.
Things have already been very complicated in the crypto industry after Donald Trump pardoned the Binance founder. The industry is left divided as some say that the pardon is justified, given that CV already spent some time in prison, while on the other hand, the community says that it reflects badly on the President, favouring leaders from the crypto industry with serious offences.
Also Read: Polymarket Bets Climbs On FTX founder SBF’s Pardon, Odds Spike To 15% After Binance CZ’s Pardon