Changpeng “CZ” Zhao has seized an opportunity to distance himself from recent accusations against Binance that it was involved in transactions that may have led to the financing of terrorism in Iran.
“I have no interest in it,” said the exchange’s founder and former CEO, who agreed to leave his company as part of a criminal settlement with the United States. “I live in a country that is being attacked by Iran. Even before that, I had no interest in it,” he said in a video Wednesday while attending the Digital Chamber of Commerce’s DC Blockchain Summit.
CZ, a resident of the United Arab Emirates, cited several recent civil lawsuits dismissed by U.S. courts that accused Binance of acting as a conduit for terrorist financing. He also argued that the Iran-related transactions would not incur fees or provide any commercial attraction for companies to participate.
“Nothing good comes of it,” CZ, who served time in prison and was pardoned by President Donald Trump, said in defense of the impact on his former company.
Binance, the world’s largest cryptocurrency exchange, settled US anti-money laundering and sanctions violation charges in 2023. Binance sued the Wall Street Journal last week, saying it fired compliance staff who reported suspicious transactions that may have violated sanctions. Internal investigators allegedly discovered that more than $1 billion in cryptocurrency was transferred from Chinese customers to wallets linked to Iranian financing networks.
The company claimed it could find no evidence that accounts on its platform had transacted directly with Iranian entities.
CZ, who is about to release a memoir he wrote while in prison, said he was the target of false accusations.
“Their attack style is entirely based on false and baseless information,” he said.
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