letter<\/a> dated Oct. 28 and addressed to U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi and Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, the lawmakers raised concerns over possible conflicts of interest and potential erosion of federal law enforcement integrity. <\/p>\nThe Senators argues that the pardon granted despite Zhao\u2019s guilty plea in a high-profile money laundering case involving Binance sets a dangerous precedent and could embolden future white-collar crimes, especially in the crypto sector. <\/p>\n
\u201cThis pardon will make it harder for Federal law enforcement to fight and deter crime,\u201d they stated.<\/p>\n
The letter also cited the 2023 settlement in which Binance agreed to pay over $4 billion in penalties after CZ pled guilty to federal charges. The company had facilitated illegal transactions tied to terrorist organizations and sanctioned nations, including Iran and North Korea. CZ was sentenced to four months in prison for failing to implement adequate anti-money laundering controls while heading Binance.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Trump\u2019s alleged business ties with CZ raise suspicion\u00a0<\/h2>\n
The senators further alleged financial entanglements between Zhao and Trump. They pointed to Zhao\u2019s continued 90% stake in Binance, meetings with Trump associates, and Binance\u2019s alleged role in coding the USD1 stablecoin for Trump\u2019s crypto venture, World Liberty Financial. Trump, who retains financial interests in WLFI, launched the company in September 2024 during his presidential campaign and won re-election in November of that year.<\/p>\n
The lawmakers argue that Trump\u2019s decision to pardon Zhao may have been influenced by financial connections and favors exchanged. They warned the move could undermine federal agencies like the DOJ, CFTC, and Treasury that worked for years to hold Binance accountable.<\/p>\n
The latest call out builds on earlier criticism by Elizabeth and other industry leaders. For now, the senators have asked the DOJ and Treasury to respond to four key questions by November 4, 2025, including whether the pardon undermines trust in law enforcement and whether Trump\u2019s ties to Zhao played a role in the decision.<\/p>\n
<\/p><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
President Trump\u2019s decision to pardon Binance founder CZ is sparking outrage with Senate Democrats now demanding a federal probe into what they call a \u201cdangerous act of political favoritism.\u201d Summary…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":3544,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-14642","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-cryptocurrency"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/bitunikey.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14642","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/bitunikey.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/bitunikey.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bitunikey.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bitunikey.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=14642"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/bitunikey.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14642\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":14643,"href":"https:\/\/bitunikey.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14642\/revisions\/14643"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bitunikey.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3544"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/bitunikey.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=14642"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bitunikey.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=14642"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bitunikey.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=14642"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}