Topic: CZ Sentenced, Your Bitcoin in their Custody - page 6. (Read 1310 times)

Do you know what's most interesting in this whole situation? I'd point at two things.
1. He obviously was accepting bitcoin from shady groups, hackers, sanctioned entities and so on, but never really faced anything besides fines. How many people do you know who are found guilty of something like a fraud or money laundering and don't get at least a mandatory year in prison? IMO this is one big extortion from the US gov. They know he's got money and he's willing to pay them off.

2. I thought he struck a deal last year and they still decided to prosecute him. IMO they wanted more money, or they wanted to suppress the price of bitcoin by going after him. This is obviously much bigger than CZ and Binance. This is about shaking out weak hands and allowing rich people who missed the first ETF wave to accumulate.

Four months is nothing, tbh. It goes away fast. They should've let CZ free, though. Especially when he paid a large fine and admitted he was guilty of money laundering. CZ even went as far as stepping down from his role as CEO of Binance. At least, his sentence isn't as bad as SBF's.

The US government has been targeting the crypto industry lately, so I wouldn't be surprised if they hunt down someone else next (Vitalik Buterin, maybe?). I've read somewhere on the forums that Roger Ver (BCH proponent, which is aka Bitcoin Jesus) was arrested for tax evasion. So you can see where everything is heading to. A good thing Satoshi Nakamoto never revealed his/her identity. Otherwise, he/she would be toast by now.

Same thoughts as well, the government want to have a target on most of the giant bitcoin exchanges, users and then frustrate them in other to get other investors discourage about bitcoin, which is something I will like us to consider well that government could be devising some means to attack users, but the mistake they are making is to start with exchange because a reasonable user eill not habe his entire asset with exchanges, instead on a non custodial wallet, as you have said, more are still coming, but the next one may be a big one that might hit the exchange users where they least expected, the earlier the better people understand ejy centralized exchange is not safe for them.

Do you even realized that CZ is not the CEO of Binance anymore right? He step down to avoid being dragged down the exchange with his case which is effective since the exchange is operating normally despite the legal charges to CZ. His “4” is really effective on mind conditioning his blind follower to absorb the impact of his sentence since this will cause a major setback on exchange if CZ doesn’t condition his followers properly just like what happened to FTX.

CZ pleaded guilty yet no one is panicking since BNB price is still near peak while the exchange still have a huge trading volume which is a clear sign that this news is already not relevant anymore to the exchange.

You get 3 month for hitting on an old lady.

Don't sell your bitcoin. Use it for creditscore.

And one more thing. Roger is more of a Jesus now than ever!

The 4-month sentence must have been the reason for panicking that caused the price to go down. Right?

I doubt our coins to be in their custody though. They don't have access to the binance.com but only binance.us AFAIK however it would not be surprising if they also request to have access to the users in the main website because there are US citizens trading there before the regulations.  CZ seem a hostage.

This system is never gonna succeed if you don't wash the tyrants out.

A real joke. I think the US government was more interested in getting money from Binance and nothing more. The sentence is just to deceive the public that Changpeng Zhao also faced physical punishment. I have seen people suffer stiffer punishments for lesser offenses. Maybe it I a warning for others to keep finds aside for settlement when the government comes for them.


It is risky to keep large sums in exchanges. You can use them for trading but they are ideal places to keep your funds for a long. They are controlled by individuals who can mismanage funds which could make them go bankrupt. The platform could also be seized at any time since they are centralized. It is better to keep your coins in an open-source noncustodial wallet.

This issue of laws is something that seems not to be good but is actually good for protecting people. Some people may hate what the US government is doing but when we look at a scenario where a person deposits money on an exchange and then at the time of withdrawal it is not allowed and days after begging a lot for the exchange employees to return their money and discovers that the owner of the exchange disappeared with all the money, so at that time this person who lost all the money on the exchange will be thinking how good it would have been if they used an exchange that was licensed and operated in the USA because the laws in the USA work much better than in other countries

Of course, I also agree that there are cases in which it seems to me that the US government justice system is persecuting people who are interested in cryptocurrencies, such as Roger, who sees that although I disagree with him about many of the things he says about bitcoin, I still don't think it's fair what the US justice system is doing with it


source: https://cointelegraph.com/news/roger-ver-tax-fraud-charges

From what I could understand, Roger Ver is a citizen of Saint Kitts and Nevis since 2014 and the accusation that is being made against him, it talks about a crime from 2017, so it is strange that the US justice system is persecuting the guy 10 years after he changed his nationality. It appears that the US justice system is trying to impose itself on the justice system of other countries, as if laws and courts did not exist in other countries as well. In the case of CZ, it also seems that the US justice system is punishing him to show the world that they are superior. for example he paid 4 billion and showed regret, so why are they still sentencing him to 4 months in jail?

He is going to prison for just four months, it isn't like he was sentenced to many years in prison. Take note that it is because of the settlement and guilty plea that he is getting just four months in jail. There's no way they would simply have let him go without any extra punishment of jail term, and four months is really nothing.

However, you are right about the U.S being unfriendly to crypto and crypto services all in the name of fighting money laundering, who knows the next service they will go after.

Not what I imagined the punishment meted out to Binance CEO Changpeng Zhao. Simply because there was no evidence that CZ was ever informed of the laundering, the judge ruled four months and no trial. Reportedly the judge rejected the prosecutor's request to increase his sentence.
From the news surrounding the legal decision received by CZ, it appears that the law is only on paper which burns easily and turns to dust.

It's more unfortunate rather than a joke! It's unfortunate to see US government is constantly attacking crypto related businesses and people involved in it. It's unfortunate to see the negative stance of US government regarding the cryptos in general.

4 months is nothing! But I wonder why a businessman has to go to prison even after agreed to do a settlement of $4 billion! Crypto businesses need to think 10 times before they want to start a new venture from American soil. There are many crypto friendly countries on earth. They just need to move out, completely.

Binance by far, the biggest crypto exchange in the world so they are able to soak that hit. Think about a smaller exchange, they would have to go out of the business!

All choices regarding privacy are in each person hands because from a legal perspective, sometimes we cannot prevent other people from being on the stock exchange. Use it appropriately without needing to keep assets on the exchange for too long. Regarding CZ since he admitted his mistake, all power on behalf of Binance has been transferred to the new CEO. That's formal but behind the scenes anything can be manipulated to make us fooled. But I don't care that far regarding the CZ case, there is no gain or loss for me personally in investing in Bitcoin as long as I can find my own way. Binance is just 1 of 1000 bridges so we have the right to choose. The most important thing is that our investment is safe, no other party touches it, so there is nothing to worry about. We are used to the US government's activities to target people in the crypto industry  .

I am not stating the guy from Binance is a saint.  Nor am I stating that Binance was the greatest thing ever.  Partly, it was.  Whether we like it or not, it is one of the reasons Cryptocurrencies became so popular.  They did make it much, much easier and more comfortable for the average user to join our crib.

BUT as usual, this sentencing is more than exaggerated and the News are making it seem like such a big deal.

Maybe it is.

But then if to the Authorities it is such a big deal I want some body to tell me what similar or worse sentencing the CEOs of Banks who processed MANY suspicious Transactions, worked with the Taliban, North Korea and played a role in Money Laundering?

https://www.nytimes.com/2020/09/20/business/fincen-banks-suspicious-activity-reports-buzzfeed.html

Oh.  Yes.  Right.  No sentencing.  Only Cryptocurrency enthusiasts receive the worst, because they play a role in building an ecosystem the Authorities hate.

Sure.  Fair if you ask me, what can I say.

Apart from him being guilty, I hope he learned from this, I am surprised that a smart man like CZ could build a centralized exchange and wanted his name to be online everywhere, he later found out that decentralization is the key, something he should have done to erase any crackdown, the proof is there already, Bitcoin and Satoshi Nakamoto is a very good example.

A system needs to be built, on the blockchain where there will be no way for any centralized entities to stop it from running and it will serve as a dex, all teams will have to get it running and vanish into thin air just like what Nakamoto did, I believe this is the way now.

Enough with trying to get popular, the more popular you are in the crypto space the more dangers of getting locked up will come looking for you, the only way to be powerful in this world and stay powerful is to be a shadow, remain unknown, pull your strings in a no man's land.

You can't hurt what you can't see.

Binance CEO CZ is not a privacy advocate and took advantage of newbies' ignorance to get them to continue depositing into Binance.
There is no connection between his conviction in the money laundering case and the ban on privacy services. CZ may indeed be guilty and should deserve punishment. 4 months is not enough, but Binance and CZ have fully cooperated with the authorities, and these provisions may send a message to scammers that all crimes are possible if you cooperate with the authorities, and the punishment will be very light.
CZ cooperated and did everything to avoid prison and yet he was imprisoned.

It is fair or unfair sentence for CZ, depends on each person and their stance on it.

I believe there is no place in the world can give us completely fairness but from CZ case, I see it looks good that CZ still got supports from the judge Richard Jones.

How Changpeng Zhao's 'Good Guy' Reputation Secured a 4-Month Prison Sentence

Is CZ a good guy or bad guy?

Again, there will be different thinking among us on it but I imagine that if CZ is sentenced in another country, like in China, North Korea for example, he will be sentenced to death if the government want to do that. In the USA., it's simply impossible.

Four months isn’t too bad after what some people were predicting but regardless, I don’t see any victims in this case. I don’t think he should have received a custodial sentence at all. He paid a huge fine & had to step down at Binance, that is enough of a punishment in my opinion. We will see you out as a free man in four years CZ.

CZ was smart enough to step down as the CEO of Binance so any case or issue against him will not bring down his empire. If he was still the active CEO, this news would have had a greater effect on the company.
Always consider any money you leave in an exchange not safe.

I do not see it as flexing of muscles by the US government. Binance is also having regulatory issues in other countries like the Philippines, Canada, Nigeria, India etc.

You've got a point. The way the DOJ was going about the case, that they wanted to make an example of him to send a clear message to others, I thought CZ was going to get something stiffer, perhaps the 4 months imprisonment may just be a charade.