Controversy Around Trump's Pardon of Binance Founder

President Trump recently pardoned Zhang Pengjiao, the Chinese-born Canadian founder of crypto exchange giant Binance. Jiao had pleaded guilty to failing to prevent money laundering on the platform. Months before applying for the pardon, his company processed a $2 billion transaction through a crypto firm linked to the Trump family. We spoke with Rex Lee, cybersecurity advisor at MySpark Privacy, about controversies surrounding this move. Rex Lee, thank you so much for joining us. When it comes to digital security, some are looking to things like crypto or unregulated areas. There was one incident, if you will, recently that's been making a lot of headlines, which is President Trump pardoning Binance's Zhang Pengjiao, or CZ, the billionaire founder of Binance. Now, he was asked about that, and there was a clip that's been making the rounds where President Trump says he doesn't know who that is, even though he pardoned him. What are the concerns over this pardon in particular? You know, Trump, God bless him. He might not know who this gentleman is, but I'm sure his sons do, who are involved in their crypto enterprise. Zhang Pengjiao, or CZ, is actually a Chinese-born citizen who immigrated to Canada. Does that mean he's associated with the CCP or the Chinese government? No. And there's been really no direct ties to him personally, but there are ties to the Chinese government and the CCP through Binance. So let's talk a little bit about CZ and why he, you know, and the pardon. He actually committed anti-money laundering violations at Binance. Binance was actively enabling their platform to support thousands of suspicious transactions, including those tied to Hamas, ISIS and Al-Qaeda. And they were utilizing the platform in crypto as a way to launder money. And this is in the indictment and the crimes he was charged with and the crimes he admitted to. So it's not that he was falsely accused of anything and then unjustly imprisoned. He actually admitted and confessed to these crimes. He had to serve four months in federal prison over it all. Now, on the pardon itself, I think, as you noted earlier, it's not legally, you know, it's not illegal to pardon him. But politically, there are some questions because, as you mentioned, his Binance or at least had poured quite a lot of money into one of Trump's son's companies or the Stablecoin area. So what kind of political questions is that part raising? Well, first of all, before the before the pardon ever took place, Abu Dhabi-backed crypto MGX company invested two billion dollars into Binance. That investment in Binance was pushed to World Liberty Finance, which is a crypto firm part owned, not wholly owned, but part owned by the Trump family. So the two billion dollars was put into an account and then invested in World Liberty Financial, which is the company that's behind Stablecoin. Is it coincidental that, you know, two billion dollars got pushed to World Liberty Financial and then this pardon comes about? So it's not like he was pardoned. And then later on, the two billion dollars came, the two billion dollars was already invested. So that there's some questions on that. And that's not really from my research as much as this has been reported by CBS News 60 Minutes. My question is, you're giving a pardon to this guy, but he's somebody who admitted to the crime. If he had pled not guilty to the crime and was convicted, then you can see, hey, there's a question here. The guy was trying to plead his innocence and he was falsely imprisoned, but he was in prison based on his own confessions. So, you know, that that I think is something that needs to be asked about. In terms of that 60 Minutes CBS report, Eric Trump did respond to it, saying that since it's partly owned by the Trump family, that President Trump had nothing to do with it, which, you know, some of the critics were saying, how could you not know when two billion dollars is entered into it? It does seem, you know, especially with the last election in 2024, we did see President Trump quite open or favorable towards crypto with this pardon. Some are pointing into that being like this is is it a pay for play? You can't really prove that. But there are questions around that. What are your thoughts on why President Trump is so inaborant, if you will, with crypto? Well, you know, of course, his family is separate of him. He's already got his money, so he can compartmentalize himself and say, I don't know nothing about this. As far as Eric Trump and the other Trumps that are invested heavily in this, they stand to make not billions, but potentially trillions, because if you look at recent legislation such as the big, beautiful bill and the Genius Act and other crypto legislation, that's going to benefit world finance. So, you know, their their back company is World Liberty Finance stands to be the leader as crypto moves from data mining or crypto mining to intrinsically backed digital currency. So once it's once it has intrinsic value tied to currency, actual currency, then that's going to be the that's going to be a leader. And they stand to benefit heavily not only from the two billion dollars invested by MGX, but also through the recent legislation. I want to delve into that, because as you mentioned, you know, Azizi himself maybe doesn't have direct ties, but Binance, the company, does have opay link ties to the Chinese regime. So given that, what are the national security questions that that raises when it comes to a pardon like this? Well, you know, there's Chinese financial institutions that are that are involved in in Binance. There are key executives in the company that have ties back to China, such as their CFO, Hina Chen and Zheng Kai He, Binance Custody, head of Binance Custody, and Li La Wang, Binance Associate, all have ties back to China, as well as one of their independent directors, Zhen Wang, is also tied back to China. But also, coincidentally, maybe, but also associated with DHR Partners, a Chinese focused private equity firm, again, co-founded by Hunter Biden and Christopher Hines. Now, does that mean Hunter Biden and Christopher Hines are still involved? Are they going to benefit from Binance? Who knows? But they do still own part of, they founded and own part of 25 percent of DHR Partners. So they're involved either directly or indirectly, and they'll benefit financially from this with Binance. So, yes, there is a national security threat here. There's privacy issues. There's financial sovereignty issues. Rex Leos, always, though. Thank you so much for joining us. Thank you for having me on the show.