Warren, Van Hollen, Colleagues Press DOJ and Treasury on Trump’s Pardon of Binance Founder Changpeng Zhao, Questioning Agencies’ Ability to Hold Criminals Accountable

Warren, Van Hollen, Colleagues Press DOJ and Treasury on Trump's Pardon of Binance Founder Changpeng Zhao, Questioning Agencies' Ability to Hold Criminals Accountable

"It appears that corporate criminals can violate the law, be found guilty, and face criminal consequences-but if they or other executives help the President enough, they can be cleared of wrongdoing."

Text of Letter (PDF)

Washington, D.C. - U.S. Senators Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.), Ranking Member of the Senate Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs Committee, Chris Van Hollen (D-MD), Bernie Sanders (I-VT), Mazie Hirono (D-HI), Richard Blumenthal (D-CT), Jack Reed (D-RI), and Jeff Merkley (D-OR) sent a letter to Attorney General Pamela Bondi and Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent expressing concerns on how President Donald Trump's pardon of Changpeng Zhao, the founder and majority owner of the crypto exchange Binance, will affect their agencies' ability to hold criminals accountable. Zhao pleaded guilty to willfully failing to maintain an effective anti-money laundering program and was sentenced to four months in prison. Binance itself pleaded guilty to multiple criminal charges and was fined a record $4.3 billion. Last week, Ranking Member Warren introduced a resolution with Senator Adam Schiff (D-CA) condemning President Trump for pardoning Zhao and calling for Congress to use its authority to stop this form of corruption.

"The pardon-which signals to cryptocurrency executives and other white collar criminals that they can commit crimes with impunity, so long as they enrich President Trump enough-seems likely to encourage, rather than discourage, criminal activity," wrote the Senators. "This pardon will make it harder for Federal law enforcement to fight and deter crime."

The lawmakers criticized President Trump for allowing Binance's financial support of the Trump family's World Liberty Financial crypto venture to undermine the coordinated effort between the Department of Justice (DOJ), Treasury, and the Commodity Future Trading Commission (CFTC) to hold Binance accountable for their failure to prevent money from flowing to terrorists, child abusers, and other criminals: "In sum: after Mr. Zhao's company provided President Trump and his family with a revenue stream worth millions of dollars, President Trump pardoned him for criminal activity that he admitted to conducting."

They continued: "For starters, Mr. Trump's pardon publicly and flagrantly undermines the work of the federal law enforcement teams that spent years investigating and prosecuting Binance's offenses. More importantly, the pardon communicates to cryptocurrency executives and other white collar corporate criminals that the law doesn't matter. It appears that corporate criminals can violate the law, be found guilty, and face criminal consequences-but if they or other executives help the President enough, they can be cleared of wrongdoing."

The Senators concluded by requesting answers to questions on how Trump's pardon of Zhao will affect individuals and companies engaging in criminal activities along with federal law enforcement officials no later than November 4, 2025.

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