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Roula Khalaf, Editor of the FT, selects her favourite stories in this weekly newsletter.
Changpeng Zhao may finally make a long-awaited public appearance in the US today. In court, reportedly.
He’s expected to appear in federal court in Seattle today, according to the WSJ. The co-founder of Binance “plans to step down and plead guilty to violating criminal US anti-money-laundering requirements, in a deal that may preserve the company’s ability to continue operating,” the paper writes, citing people familiar.
That’s on top of the ~$4bn settlement that’s said to be in the works between the world’s biggest crypto exchange by volume and the US Department of Justice. That deal is also said to include a guilty plea from Binance.
There are other interesting details in the WSJ piece. CZ will apparently be able to hang on to his ownership of the world’s biggest crypto exchange, for example:
The deal would allow Zhao to retain his majority ownership of Binance, although he won’t be able to have an executive role at the company. He would face sentencing at a later date.
And the WSJ makes a comparison not to our favourite jailed crypto founder, Sam Bankman-Fried, but to BITMEX founder and Noted Online Opinion Haver Arthur Hayes, who with his co-founder admitted to violating the Bank Secrecy Act in early 2022.
The US attorney’s office is reportedly going to have a press conference at 3pm Eastern, and we will obviously be tuned in.
Read the full article here