The pardon of Binance founder Qiao Changpeng (CZ) by US President Donald Trump is considered a notable development for both the crypto industry and the political balance of power in Washington.
Just a year ago, Mr. Zhao was sentenced to prison for providing access to money launderers, but was released after receiving a pardon from the White House.
The pardon is believed to be due to the Trump administration’s friendly approach to the cryptocurrency industry and the power of Washington’s influential lobbying network. The incident prompted comments such as, “In President Trump’s Washington, anything is possible for those with the right connections.”
President Trump said Thursday: “I don’t think I know him, but a lot of people have heard that he was wrongly prosecuted. They say he was persecuted by the Biden administration, and at the request of a lot of good people, I pardoned him.”
Behind the scenes of the pardon is lobbyist Ches McDowell, a close friend of President Trump’s son Donald Trump Jr. His North Carolina-based company, Checkmate Government Relations, became one of the most influential lobbying firms in Washington during President Trump’s second term. Mr. McDowell was notable for attending the same White House event as Mr. Trump and Mr. Trump Jr. last week.
Binance hired McDowell in late September to lobby the Treasury Department and White House on “monetary policy and executive amnesty.” The company paid Checkmate $450,000 for this short-term assignment.
Efforts to pardon Mr. Zhao go back several months. Three weeks after President Trump took office, Binance and Chao added Teresa Goody Guillen, a lawyer with ties to the SEC, to their team. Guillen’s office reported a total of $290,000 in revenue from Binance and Zao through 2025.
“On behalf of my client Mr. Chao, I would like to express my deepest gratitude to President Donald J. Trump for the courage and moral clarity that made this day possible,” Guillen said in a post on his X account after the pardon.
In addition to the pardon, Chao and Binance strengthened their relationship with the White House by establishing a business relationship with the Trump family’s cryptocurrency venture, World Liberty Financial.
Binance’s lobbying efforts in Washington have run parallel to the company’s legal proceedings. Binance.US hired its first lobbyist at the end of 2021, spent over $1 million in 2022, and over $1.2 million in the first nine months of 2023. But lobbying stopped completely at the end of 2023 after Zhao pleaded guilty and the company paid a $4 billion fine.
The return of President Trump has invigorated Binance’s lobbying efforts. The company reports $860,000 in lobbying expenses through 2025. Binance CEO Richard Teng also joined the advisory board of Digital Chamber, a major U.S. cryptocurrency trading organization, in July.
“The future is bright as President Trump and his administration are strongly supporting the crypto industry,” Teng said in a post earlier this year.
*This is not investment advice.
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