Binance founder Changpeng Zhao said he chose not to rely on his United Arab Emirates citizenship to stay out of reach of US prosecutors when the Binance anti-money laundering case became public. Speaking on August 19 at the Wyoming Blockchain Symposium in Jackson Hole, Zhao said the UAE had granted him citizenship about six months earlier and that the country has no extradition treaty with the United States.

According to Zhao, he could have remained in the Middle East and avoided appearing in US court, but decided against it because he did not think that course would be honorable. He said facing the case directly was the better outcome for himself, Binance, BNB holders, and the broader crypto industry.

Why Zhao says he stayed and fought the case

During a fireside chat with Anthony Scaramucci, Zhao said he deliberately chose not to use his UAE status as a shield. He described trying to evade the case as the wrong thing to do and said that when the US government pursues a case, hiding or running away from it is not the right response.

His remarks offer a clearer explanation of a decision that led to the end of his leadership at Binance and, ultimately, a prison sentence. Zhao framed the choice as one of principle rather than legal strategy, even though he said he had a path to avoid US courts entirely.

He says prison was not what he expected

Zhao also said he did not expect to receive a custodial sentence. He told Scaramucci that the case involved no fraud and what he described as a single Bank Secrecy Act violation, leading him to believe prison time was unlikely.

He contrasted his punishment with the outcome for former BitMEX executive Arthur Hayes, who received six months of home confinement after pleading guilty to one count of violating the Bank Secrecy Act by failing to implement adequate AML and KYC controls at his exchange. Zhao said his own four-month federal prison term came for what he viewed as a fundamentally similar personal offense.

Even so, the sentence was still well below the three years sought by the Justice Department, though it was harsher than the no-prison outcome requested by his legal team. Zhao said he believes he may be the only person to have gone to jail for a single Bank Secrecy Act violation.

How he viewed Binance’s position

In the same conversation, Zhao reflected on Binance’s standing when the case unfolded. He said the exchange was the world’s largest crypto platform at the time, while emphasizing that it was neither based in the United States nor in China.

At the same time, he suggested Binance may have been an easy target because, in his words, it looked Chinese despite not being headquartered there. He added that he did not blame US authorities, describing the situation as what it was.

What happened in the case and what followed

Zhao, 48, stepped down as Binance chief after the exchange reached a $4.3 billion settlement with US authorities. He also paid a $50 million personal penalty before reporting to the Federal Correctional Institution Lompoc II in Santa Barbara, California, to serve his sentence.

He left the facility near the end of September 2024. A year later, President Donald Trump granted Zhao a full and unconditional pardon. Zhao’s latest comments do not change the legal outcome, but they provide his most direct public explanation of why he did not try to avoid the US case when he says he had the chance to do so.

Source: cryptopotato.com