Changpeng Zhaoalias C.Z., will resign from his position as CEO of Binanceit states The Wall Street Journal. The decision is part of an agreement with the Department of Justice (DOJ) and the United States Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) to end a criminal investigation against the company.
According to the aforementioned media, CZ will not only resign from his position as CEO of the crypto giant. Also will plead guilty of having violated US anti-money laundering requirements. The DOJ plans to hold a press conference today, Tuesday, at 3:00 p.m. ET; that is, 22:00 in Spain.
The CEO of Binance will appear this afternoon in federal court in Seattle to plead guilty to the charges against him, indicates the WSJ. Despite his resignation, Zhao will remain the owner of the company, which would continue to function normally. Of course, he will not be able to hold any type of executive position.
Likewise, the agreement includes the payment of a multimillion-dollar fine that would amount to $4.3 billion from Binance. CZ, who is usually very active on his X (Twitter) account, has not yet commented publicly on the matter. At least at the time of publishing this article.
United States, against Binance and CZ
The agreement that will be announced in the next few hours will end two investigations against Binance. The first corresponds to the United States Department of Justice, which put the cryptocurrency exchange in the spotlight for allegedly allowing individuals from sanctioned countries such as Russia or Iran to operate on its platform.
The second, from the CFTC, accused Binance of offering services to transact in derivatives and futures without having the corresponding authorization in the United States. In addition, he criticized the company for allegedly operating for years without having tools to prevent the money side and the financing of terrorism.
It is worth clarifying that the apparent resignation of CZ and the payment of the aforementioned fine will not close all the conflicts that Binance faces in the United States. The exchange agreement does not cover the lawsuit that the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) filed last June.
At that time, said organization accused the platform of operating illegally in US territory. According to the SEC, Binance mixed the funds of users of its North American subsidiary (Binance.US) with those corresponding to clients of its global exchange (Binance.com). Then, he secretly sent them to a company registered in Zhao’s name, Merit Peak Limitedto perform operations trading.
At the time, CZ defended itself against the SEC’s accusation and Binance called it an “overreach.” It remains to be seen what happens going forward. For now, if Zhao’s resignation as CEO of the exchange comes to fruition, there are already names in the pipeline to take his place. Richard Teng appears as the most viable candidate.
In accordance with ForbesTeng, who is currently head of regional markets for Binance outside the United States, He is the successor with the most possibilities. Although conversations with other potential replacements would not be ruled out.