{"id":35233,"date":"2024-04-25T14:19:57","date_gmt":"2024-04-25T14:19:57","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/2024\/04\/25\/friends-family-royalty-seek-mercy-for-cryptos-richest-man-changpeng-zhao-times-of-india\/"},"modified":"2024-04-25T14:19:57","modified_gmt":"2024-04-25T14:19:57","slug":"friends-family-royalty-seek-mercy-for-cryptos-richest-man-changpeng-zhao-times-of-india","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/2024\/04\/25\/friends-family-royalty-seek-mercy-for-cryptos-richest-man-changpeng-zhao-times-of-india\/","title":{"rendered":"Friends, family, royalty seek mercy for crypto\u2019s richest man Changpeng Zhao – Times of India"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Friends,<\/div>\n
Binance co-founder Changpeng Zhao is facing up to three years in prison, if efforts by US prosecutors to secure his sentencing prove successful. More than 160 friends, colleagues and investors are determined for the crypto executive to escape incarceration entirely.
Totaling nearly 350 pages, a trove of letters submitted to a Seattle court by Zhao\u2019s confidantes and co-workers on Wednesday provide insight into the private life of one of the world\u2019s richest people.Among the authors are the two mothers of his five children, titans of industry both in and outside of crypto, government elites, old college buddies and dozens of his employees.
The list of names includes Fosun International co-founder Xinjun Liang, two members of ruling families in the United Arab Emirates, senior leaders at crypto miner Bitfury, the founder of venture capital firm Antler and former US ambassador to China Max Baucus, who serves on Binance\u2019s advisory board. A number of current and former Binance executives also submitted letters, including all three external members of the exchange\u2019s new board of directors who were appointed earlier this month.
Binance pleaded guilty to US anti-money-laundering and sanctions violations late last year, incurring $4.3 billion in penalties as well as having to agree to oversight from authorities. Zhao, who is better known by the moniker \u201cCZ\u201d, also pleaded guilty to anti-money-laundering failures and stepped down as CEO.
Zhao, 47, is the world\u2019s 29th richest person and is worth about $43 billion, according to the Bloomberg Billionaire Index. Binance remains the world\u2019s largest cryptocurrency exchange.
The letters describe a man uninterested in wealth, with multiple references to Zhao\u2019s preference for affordable clothing from Amazon over luxury goods, dinners cooked by his aunt and taxi cabs over limousines. Yi He, Zhao\u2019s current life partner and Binance co-founder, said the former CEO received a lower salary than other company executives, adding that hadn\u2019t taken any dividends or cash from the business since its founding.
He\u2019s also a family man. Friends described his various homes as often being covered in children\u2019s toys, applauding Zhao\u2019s closeness with his youngest offspring and elderly mother. \u201cThey are very close to him and now they are always asking: Why isn\u2019t Dad home? When can Dad come back?\u201d said Yi He of their children. \u201cOf course, I\u2019m not saying here that CZ did not make mistakes, but his biggest mistake was ignorance.\u201d
At a dinner in December last year, Zhao\u2019s teenage son Ryan confronted him about his crimes, one letter read. \u201cI consciously avoided mentioning the case, wanting to provide a respite from his legal troubles,\u201d recounted Ronghui Gu, co-founder of blockchain security firm CertiK and now an associate professor at Columbia University.
\u201cThe sudden silence that followed was palpable,\u201d Gu said. \u201cHe [Zhao] acknowledged his mistakes and his guilt, emphasizing that making mistakes is not something to be ashamed of, but failing to confront and rectify those mistakes is.\u201d
Business troubles<\/span>
Several submissions came from industry executives and investors who\u2019ve known Zhao for a number of years, recalling his staunchness for honesty and integrity in business dealings. When Zhao was chief technology officer of crypto exchange OKCoin in 2015, he resigned in protest at what Richmond Teo, co-founder of stablecoin issuer Paxos Trust Co., called \u201clapses in management and finance.\u201d OKCoin denied the accuracy of Zhao\u2019s allegations at the time.
\u201cHe received many threats and was an individual being publicly attacked by a large and deep pocketed corporation. I asked him to tone it down, but he refused because it was the truth,\u201d wrote Teo, whose firm previously partnered with Binance on its now-defunct stablecoin BinanceUSD. \u201cHe made powerful enemies in the industry while standing his ethical grounds.\u201d
Years later, an application by Binance to register its services with the Monetary Authority of Singapore was denied due to Zhao\u2019s controlling shareholdings in other global Binance entities, according to Kee Lock Chua, CEO of Temasek-backed venture capital firm Vertex Venture Holdings.
\u201cAfter much deliberation, we agreed to withdraw our application. CZ decided to fully refund our original invested cost despite Binance Singapore exhausting half of the invested capital,\u201d said Chua. \u201cThis is an unexpected gesture by him and it showed his thoughtfulness and sense of fairness.\u201d
Charity<\/span>
Many of the letters in support of Zhao referred to numerous charitable donations made by Binance and Zhao. More than 50 employees from Binance\u2019s Ukrainian workforce signed or authored letters, describing the company\u2019s support of their relocation away from the country when Russia invaded its territory in early 2022.
Others referenced personal attributes as evidence of a down-to-earth character, such as Zhao\u2019s preference for riding a scooter to meetings, his fondness for poker games and his time working at McDonald\u2019s while in high school. Several letters talked of Zhao\u2019s time in recovery from two spinal surgeries in 2020, during which he continued to work at Binance while being bedridden.
\u201cWhen I visited him in 2020, I found him lying flat on his back in bed with a contraption he had made to hold his laptop in place over his face so he could continuously be on his computer while recovering,\u201d said Teo. \u201cHe joked that his laptop had fallen on this face [sic] many times in earlier iterations.\u201d
A three-year prison term would be double what Zhao was previously expected to serve under federal guidelines. With the letters of support as evidence alongside Zhao\u2019s own apology and expertise from prison and security consultants, lawyers for Zhao argued he should receive probation instead.
In his own letter to the court, Zhao apologised for his actions. He also lamented having to let go of his life\u2019s work in stepping down from Binance, adding that he hoped to focus on opportunities in education and biological technology innovation in future. \u201cI assumed I would be doing that for the next several decades,\u201d he said of his time at the helm. \u201cThat life no longer exists for me. It was difficult to come to terms with that at first, but I have accepted it.\u201d<\/div>\n