Post-prison CZ says time behind bars didn't hurt the billionaire's business after Binance
Key takeaways
- The billionaire said he learned from his earlier ignorance about U.S. compliance, though he said he has no plans to be a CEO at the moment and is instead focused on advising firms he's investing in.
- The founder of the Binance crypto exchange represents the rarest of statistics — a billionaire who has been imprisoned, and the only person to ever serve time solely for Bank Secrecy Act violations.
- "Once we can explain, 'Look, this is the Bank Secrecy Act, this is the violation; there's no fraud.' Many people confuse that, right?" he told CoinDesk in an interview.
The billionaire said he learned from his earlier ignorance about U.S. compliance, though he said he has no plans to be a CEO at the moment and is instead focused on advising firms he's investing in. How does a high-profile crypto founder recover his reputation after serving prison time? Changpeng "CZ" Zhao's answer: He doesn't have to.
The founder of the Binance crypto exchange represents the rarest of statistics — a billionaire who has been imprisoned, and the only person to ever serve time solely for Bank Secrecy Act violations. But he said that he's never lost a prospective business partner because of his guilty plea.
"Once we can explain, 'Look, this is the Bank Secrecy Act, this is the violation; there's no fraud.' Many people confuse that, right?" he told CoinDesk in an interview. "But once they understand … they actually trust you more."