According to BlockBeats, on September 22, BlockTower Capital founder and CIO Ari Paul opposed CryptoQuant CEO Ki Young Ju's affirmative view of CZ, saying, "CZ committed the same crime as SBF. If the federal government wants, he can be sentenced to life imprisonment. CZ stole customer deposits and gambled. He has dozens of charges and deceived the retail industry in dozens of ways. He deliberately facilitated money laundering and worse for criminal groups. Why was he only charged with a little bit? Because the federal government is worried that he will swindle more than $30 billion in retail funds by bribing the UAE sheikh to obtain sovereign immunity, and the federal government wants a lot of Binance documents that can prove the industry guilty."
It is worth noting that the Reuters report cited by Ari Paul accused CZ of obtaining approximately $11 billion in customer assets through trading companies. In response, CryptoQuant CEO Ki Young Ju quoted the US Department of Justice's statement of accusation against CZ, saying that the Reuters report had no solid evidence, only indirect suspicion, and no legal conviction was made. Moreover, "the Department of Justice did not accuse CZ of embezzling customer funds, but accused him of abetting money laundering."