President Donald Trump’s decision to pardon Changpeng Zhao, co-founder of the cryptocurrency exchange Binance, has caused a political uproar focused on accusations of financial corruption. Representative Maxine Waters condemned the decision as a clear case of pay-to-play politics benefiting cryptocurrency interests associated with the business empire of the Trump family.
This has heightened of the conflicts of interest between the President’s duties and Trump’s massive cryptocurrency holdings, valued at billions of dollars.
Waters Accuses Trump of Corrupt Dealings
Representative Maxine Waters, the top Democrat on the House Financial Services Committee, released a blistering statement shortly after Trump’s Thursday pardon of Zhao. Waters argued that Trump pardoned someone who confessed to their guilt in facilitating money laundering and processing transactions for child abusers, drug dealers, and terrorists.
Waters wrote that Zhao spent months building relationships with Trump and his family while funneling billions into World Liberty Financial, the president’s cryptocurrency scheme. Waters called the pardon “corrupt favoritisms” and rewarded someone who benefited by enriching the president’s personal business interests by donating hundreds of millions of dollars to his crypto empire.
Trump justified his choice by noting that many people persuaded him that Zhao’s actions were not criminal if the law was enforced correctly. The president alleged that the previous Biden Administration was persecuting Zhao, not actually prosecuted for crimes that warranted punishment under federal law.
The pardon was announced in conjunction with reports indicating that Trump’s net worth skyrocketed during his second presidential term as he engaged in an extensive cryptocurrency business. World Liberty Financial, a company, of sorts, partner established by Trump’s sons and former business partners, has generated more than 1 billion dollars in pre-tax profit over the past year.
Trump had previously stated he earned $57 million from World Liberty Financial, and his family reportedly owned $5 billion worth of the company. Eric Trump even suggested their actual profit from that business would likely be even greater than what was publicly reported, given a new estimate that his family will make $550 million this year.
