Changpeng “CZ” Zhao took the opportunity to distance himself from recent accusations against Binance that it was involved in processing transactions that could enable the financing of terrorism in Iran.
“I have no interest in doing this,” said the exchange’s founder and former chief executive, who agreed to leave his company as part of a criminal settlement with the United States. “I live in a country that’s under attack from Iran. Even before that, I just wasn’t interested in it,” he said Wednesday in a video appearance at the Digital Chamber’s DC Blockchain Summit.
CZ, a UAE resident, cited a few civil lawsuits recently dismissed by US courts that accused Binance of acting as a conduit for terrorist financing. He also argued that the Iran-related transactions in question do not generate fees and would not offer any commercial attraction in which the company could become involved.
“There’s no upside,” CZ, who served prison time and won a pardon from President Donald Trump, said in defending the implications against his former company.
Binance, the world’s largest crypto exchange that settled U.S. anti-money laundering and sanctions violations charges in 2023, sued the Wall Street Journal last week for reporting that it had fired compliance staff who flagged suspicious transactions that may have violated sanctions. Internal investigators reportedly reported more than $1 billion in crypto transfers from Chinese customers to wallets linked to Iranian financial networks.
The company said it had not found evidence that accounts on its platforms were made directly with Iranian entities.
CZ, who is set to publish a memoir he worked on during his time in prison, said he was targeted with false accusations.
“In the way they attack, they are completely using false and baseless information,” he said.
Read more: Binance tells Senate inquiry no account sent crypto directly to Iran
