- A judge has signed off on Binance’s guilty plea agreement.
- The cryptocurrency exchange will pay a $4.3 billion fine.
Federal Judge Richard Jones has approved a plea agreement for cryptocurrency exchange Binance. The company will pay a fine of $4.3 billion, Bloomberg reports, citing the words of the judge during the hearing in Seattle.
“This is really a case where the company’s ethical standards were violated because of greed,” Jones said.
Under the terms of the settlement, Binance exchange compliance must now be monitored for five years. The monitoring will be done by a law firm.
In urging the judge to approve the deal, prosecutors said the exchange had “left the financial system vulnerable.” They added that Binance’s misconduct was deliberate and occurred under the oversight of senior management.
The company’s deputy general counsel Josh Eaton commented on the situation:
“Binance accepts responsibility for past actions. We are proud to have improved our controls over the past few years.”
The report also notes that the sentencing of the exchange’s former CEO Changpeng Zhao has been postponed until April 2024. He faces a prison sentence of up to 18 months.
Recall, earlier the US federal prosecutor’s office urged the court to accept the agreement to recognize the guilt of the exchange Binance, thereby closing the case.
