Changpeng Zhao will be the first to rebuke those who spread false information, so everyone must always remember the number 4.
Since the end of May, the embattled founder of Binance has been serving a four-month sentence in a US prison for violating US money laundering laws.
Tell crypto Twitter users, though, that they were wrong to prematurely celebrate the crypto entrepreneur’s freedom on Thursday. In fact, Zhao is set to be released on September 29, according to the U.S. Bureau of Prisons.
The confusion may be due in part to the fact that Zhao Changpeng appeared to have been transferred this week from a minimum-security prison in Southern California to RRM Long Beach, a boarding program that prepares inmates who are about to be released from prison to return to society.
RRMs, or Residential Reentry Management offices, are often colloquially referred to as "halfway houses."
Technically, some Twitter users are correct in claiming that Zhao Changpeng is out of jail, but he is certainly still in the custody of the US government and cannot move freely or do what he wants.
By the end of September, Zhao should be able to resume his mobility and likely return to his wife and two children in Dubai, where he has been staying since pleading guilty in November to violating U.S. criminal anti-money laundering regulations to keep his company, the world’s largest cryptocurrency exchange, afloat.
A federal judge in Seattle has since denied Zhao’s request to return to his family while he awaits sentencing, forcing the cryptocurrency billionaire to spend several months of awkward vacations in the Pacific Northwest.
Even after reaching a settlement with the U.S. government, Zhao Changpeng remains the richest person in the cryptocurrency space, with his net worth at $47.7 billion at last count.
However, as part of the settlement, Zhao Changpeng was also banned from operating or managing Binance for three years. The entrepreneur said he intends to use this time to focus on other businesses such as education and passive investing.
If he’s curious about other options for the future, Zhao Changpeng can now get job placement assistance and life skills training at RRM Long Branch.
