Changpeng “CZ” Zhao embraced a chance to distance himself from recent allegations against Binance that it has been involved in handling transactions that potentially enabled the financing of terrorism in Iran.
“I have no interest in doing that,” said the founder and former CEO of the exchange, who agreed to leave his company under a criminal settlement with the United States.
CZ, who resides in the United Arab Emirates, cited a pair of civil lawsuits recently dismissed in US courts that had accused Binance of acting as a conduit for terrorist financing. He also argued that the Iranian transactions in question do not generate fees and would not offer any business attraction for the firm to get involved.
“There is no benefit,” CZ, who had served a prison sentence and received a pardon from President Donald Trump, said in defense of the implications against his former company.
Binance, the largest global crypto exchange that had settled US money laundering and sanctions violation charges in 2023, sued the Wall Street Journal last week for reporting that it had fired compliance staff who had flagged suspicious transactions that may have violated sanctions. Internal investigators had reportedly flagged more than $1 billion in crypto transfers from Chinese customers to wallets linked to Iranian financing networks.
The company has claimed it could find no evidence that accounts on its platforms had traded directly with Iranian entities.
CZ, who is close to launching a memoir he had been working on during his time in prison, said he has been hit with false accusations.
“The way they attack, they use completely false, baseless information,” he said.
Read more: Binance tells Senate no accounts send crypto directly to Iran
