Earlier this week, Changpeng Zhao, the creator of Binance, the biggest cryptocurrency exchange in the world, was given a four-month prison sentence.
The 47-year-old former CEO of a significant cryptocurrency exchange received his sentence in Seattle last year for breaking sanctions and anti-money laundering rules in the US.
With a net worth of $43 billion, Zhao—who was formerly the most prominent person in the cryptocurrency industry—is also the richest person incarcerated in the United States, and maybe the whole globe, according to a Bloomberg story cited by Hindustan Times.
With this, he also joins Sam Bankman-Fried of FTX as the second significant cryptocurrency mogul to get a jail sentence.
According to Bloomberg, Zhao’s fortune is anticipated to grow even more during his imprisonment as a result of the current cryptocurrency bull run.
Furthermore, even though Zhao resigned as CEO of Binance, he still owns around 90% of the business, and several of his close pals are supposedly on the board of directors.
Thanks to US District Judge Richard Jones, Zhao was sentenced to a lower jail time than the prosecutors had requested.
The punishment is less than the maximum of one to one and a half years that the federal guidelines indicate.
In contrast, Bankman-Fried, the head of FTX, was sentenced to 25 years in prison; nevertheless, he plans to appeal both his conviction and sentence.
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