Binance Founder and CEO Zhao Changpeng attends the Viva Technology conference on innovation and startups at the Porte de Versailles exhibition center in Paris, France on June 16, 2022.
Benoit Tessier | Reuters
A federal judge last month rejected a request from Binance founder Changpeng “CZ” Zhao to travel to his home in the United Arab Emirates to “hospitalize and operate” on a person in his life, even though he offered to be Binance equity as security for his return to the United States, according to a new court filing.
The equity was valued at $4.5 billion based on Binance’s last funding round two years ago, Zhao’s lawyers noted in their Dec. 22 letter to Judge Richard Jones, according to a filing Wednesday.
Zhao pleaded guilty in November in federal court in Seattle to failing to maintain an effective anti-money laundering program at the company, the world’s largest cryptocurrency exchange. Binance agreed to pay a $4.3 billion penalty in the case.
Zhao, who resigned as CEO following his plea deal, is scheduled to be sentenced on February 23 but is free in the United States on $175 million bail.
In the letter last month, his lawyers asked Judge Jones to allow him to travel to Abu Dhabi on January 4 for a period of one to four weeks so that he could be present during a person’s hospitalization, surgery and subsequent recovery period could whose name is redacted in the copy of the letter submitted Wednesday.
Details of the medical procedure were also blacked out in the letter, which noted that federal prosecutors had not approved Zhao’s request.
Jones held a closed hearing on the motion on Dec. 29 and rejected Zhao’s offer to travel, court records show.
Jones rejected another request to allow Zhao to travel to the UAE in early December. The judge said Zhao’s “enormous wealth” made him a significant flight risk.
“The defendant has vast assets and property overseas and has no ties to the United States. His family lives in the United Arab Emirates and it appears that he prefers status in the United Arab Emirates,” Jones wrote in a six-page order on December 7. “In these circumstances, the court finds that the defendant has not established by clear and convincing evidence that he is unlikely to flee if he returns to the UAE.”
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2024-01-25 00:20:36
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