interview<\/a> with Anthony Pompliano, Guill\u00e9n addressed critiques linking the pardon to Binance\u2019s dealings with World Liberty Financial and other Trump-connected entities.<\/p>\nGuill\u00e9n explained that Zhao, aka CZ, was charged with Binance\u2019s failure to implement anti-money laundering compliance programs, not money laundering itself.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis is a regulatory infraction. There\u2019s no money laundering involved,\u201d she said. The attorney argued CZ never should have been prosecuted.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Reports based on unverified sources, Binance founder attorney claims<\/h2>\n
Guill\u00e9n described the corruption allegations as \u201ca pile-up of a lot of false statements, misstatements, sometimes assumptions.\u201d <\/p>\n
She challenged reporters to verify their sources and noted that media outlets cite other media reports without solid evidence.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou\u2019ll see a media report, citing a media report, citing a media report, and there\u2019s no basis for it other than sources that are close to somebody, which is kind of code for not a strong source,\u201d Guill\u00e9n stated.<\/p>\n
The attorney disputed claims that World Liberty Financial is \u201cTrump\u2019s company,\u201d saying she hasn\u2019t seen evidence supporting this characterization.<\/p>\n
Guill\u00e9n addressed allegations about USD-1, the stablecoin World Liberty Financial issued on the Binance chain. <\/p>\n
\u201cJust because I list something on Craigslist, it doesn\u2019t mean that I therefore have some special relationship with the former CEO of Craigslist,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
She explained USD-1 exists on multiple chains, and other exchanges hold it.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Other crypto executives received pardons<\/h2>\n
Guill\u00e9n pointed out that Arthur Hayes, former BitMEX CEO, also received a pardon along with the BitMEX company itself. Ross Ulbricht, founder of Silk Road, was pardoned as well.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019ve been pardoning people for, and companies, juridical people also from the beginning of our country all the way back to England,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
The attorney noted pardons have historically covered both criminal and civil offenses for individuals and entities.<\/p>\n
When asked about secret Bitcoin payments to Trump, Guill\u00e9n said: \u201cI know CZ. I just know that that would never happen. That\u2019s just not who he is.\u201d<\/p>\n
Elizabeth Warren made inaccurate claims about CZ<\/h2>\n
Senator Elizabeth Warren posted on social media that CZ had been convicted of crimes he wasn\u2019t convicted of. Warren also alleged CZ engaged in pay-to-play to obtain his pardon.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou can\u2019t just go and say things about people and allege that they violated various crimes or committed various crimes that they haven\u2019t committed,\u201d Guill\u00e9n stated.<\/p>\n
CZ will not return to Binance, which still faces restrictions from DOJ, CFTC, FinCEN, and OFAC. The exchange has a Treasury Department monitor ensuring U.S. law compliance despite being banned from serving U.S. customers.<\/p>\n
<\/p><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Teresa Goody Guill\u00e9n, Changpeng Zhao\u2019s personal attorney, denied pay-to-play allegations surrounding the Binance founder\u2019s presidential pardon. Summary CZ\u2019s attorney says pay-to-play allegations are baseless and fueled by unverified reports. Guill\u00e9n…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":4420,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-16056","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\/16056","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=16056"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/bitunikey.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16056\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":16057,"href":"https:\/\/bitunikey.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16056\/revisions\/16057"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bitunikey.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4420"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/bitunikey.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=16056"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bitunikey.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=16056"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bitunikey.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=16056"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}