A United States (US) district court has directed Changpeng Zhao, the founder and former CEO of Binance, to surrender all his passports to a third party and to keep authorities informed about his travel plans.
This modification to Zhao’s bond conditions for release was made following an application by the US on March 5.
Bond conditions, mandated by law, outline requirements that a defendant on pretrial release must adhere to until the resolution of their case.
As part of the bond, Richard Jones, a US district judge, ordered.
“Defendant must remain in the continental United States through the imposition of sentence,” the judge said.
“Defendant must notify Pretrial Services before any travel within the continental United States.
“Defendant must surrender his current Canadian passport to a third-party custodian employed and supervised by his counsel of record. The third-party custodian must retain control over that Canadian passport and must accompany Defendant on any travel that requires identification documents.
“Defendant must surrender all other current and expired passports and travel documents to his counsel of record, who may return those documents to defendant only with authorisation from Pretrial Services or the Court. Defendant may not apply for or obtain a new passport or travel document from any country without the Court’s permission.”
In November 2023, the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) accused Changpeng Zhao, the founder of Binance, of money laundering, unlicensed money transmitting, and violations in Seattle.
Additionally, Binance was charged with facilitating the trading of several crypto tokens considered securities by the SEC.
On November 1, 2023, Zhao pleaded guilty to these charges, while Binance agreed to pay over $4 billion in fines and penalties.
Zhao stepped down as Binance’s CEO in November last year and is awaiting sentencing scheduled for April 30, 2024. Regarding the recent bond modification, Zhao argued against the restrictions, citing his past compliance with travel requirements.