The former richest Chinese man was sentenced, and he apologized: I take all the responsibility! His net worth is still over 230 billion yuan. Is he getting rich while serving time in prison?

According to Jiemian News, based on reports from multiple media outlets, on April 30th local time, Zhao Changpeng, the founder of Binance, the world's largest cryptocurrency exchange and former "richest Chinese man", was sentenced to four months in prison in the United States.
Earlier, U.S. prosecutors said in a court document on April 23 local time that Zhao Changpeng should serve 36 months in prison after admitting to violating anti-money laundering laws. Zhao Changpeng resigned as CEO of Binance in November last year, when he admitted to the violation and the company agreed to accept a fine of $4.32 billion.
Companies and individuals have been fined more than 50 billion yuan
Zhao Changpeng apologizes: Take all responsibility
In November 2023, the U.S. Department of Justice reached a settlement agreement with Binance and Zhao Changpeng. According to a statement issued by the U.S. Department of Justice, Binance pleaded guilty to charges of money laundering, unlicensed remittances, and sanctions violations, and will pay a fine of $4.316 billion; Zhao Changpeng admitted to violating U.S. anti-money laundering laws and agreed to pay a fine of $50 million and resign as CEO. The settlement agreement allows Binance to continue operating. At that time, Zhao Changpeng pleaded guilty and was released on bail for $175 million, but he could not leave the United States.
On December 18, 2023, local time, the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) announced another $2.85 billion penalty against the cryptocurrency exchange Binance and its former CEO Zhao Changpeng. So far, Binance and Zhao Changpeng have been fined a total of $7.216 billion (about RMB 52.2 billion).
On April 25 this year, Zhao Changpeng issued an apology letter, apologizing for his past poor decisions and taking all responsibility.
In the letter, Zhao Changpeng said that he should focus on solving Binance's compliance issues from the beginning. He admitted that he had made a mistake in not establishing the necessary compliance measures to regulate Binance in the past, but also stated that "Binance has implemented the most stringent anti-money laundering controls of all non-US exchanges since 2022."
Zhao Changpeng said that he was willing to plead guilty in the hope of completely resolving the problem in front of the court, correcting his mistakes and opening the next chapter of his life. In the future, he hopes to focus on two things: investing in biotech startups and education.
At the end of the apology letter, Zhao Changpeng made an assurance, "This is the only time I have dealt with the criminal justice system."
Today, his net worth is still over 230 billion yuan
The 50th richest person in the world
Zhao Changpeng was born in Lianyungang, Jiangsu in 1977. When he was 12 years old, he moved to Vancouver, Canada with his family and became a Chinese Canadian. During college, he studied computer science at McGill University in Montreal. In 1997, Zhao Changpeng graduated from college and entered the financial technology industry. He first became a software developer for the Tokyo Stock Exchange, and then went to New York to work for Bloomberg, participating in the development of futures trading software. At the age of 27, Zhao Changpeng, known as a programming wizard, became the company's team leader in New Jersey, London and Tokyo.
In 2005, Zhao Changpeng founded Fuxun Information (developing the fastest high-frequency trading system for securities companies) and Bijie Technology in Shanghai, earning his first pot of gold. In 2013, he learned about Bitcoin from a poker friend and began to set foot in this field. In 2017, Zhao Changpeng and his team founded Binance and issued the digital currency "Binance Coin" (BNB). The name of Binance in English is based on the combination of the words binary and finance. It provides transactions for more than 150 cryptocurrencies, including Bitcoin, Ethereum, Litecoin and its BNB token. From September to December 2017, the price of Bitcoin soared from US$3,000 to US$20,000. People began to scramble to enter the cryptocurrency exchange. Binance developed rapidly, with more than one million registered users in three months.
Just half a year after its establishment, Binance attracted 6 million users with a transaction capacity of 1.4 million times per second, with a daily transaction volume of more than 10 billion US dollars, soaring to the first place in the industry and becoming the world's largest cryptocurrency exchange, while also creating a new myth in the cryptocurrency industry. In the first quarter of 2018, Binance made a profit of 200 million US dollars. By 2021, Binance had 3,000 employees worldwide, with a daily transaction volume of up to 76 billion US dollars, more than its four largest competitors combined. At that time, Binance's valuation had reached 300 billion US dollars. Binance is not listed and has not directly disclosed the company's profits. However, at the time, some media estimated that in the third quarter of 2021 alone, the company's profits reached 3.2 billion US dollars, equivalent to 20.3 billion yuan.
It is reported that Zhao Changpeng controls most of Binance's shares. According to Forbes data, founder Zhao Changpeng owns 30% of Binance shares. At the end of 2021, against the backdrop of a surge in cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin, Zhao Changpeng became the richest Chinese with a net worth of US$94.1 billion (approximately RMB 634.8 billion), and also ranked among the top ten richest people in the world. However, six months later, virtual currencies such as Bitcoin plummeted, and Zhao Changpeng's wealth once shrank by more than 80% to US$17.4 billion.
In 2023, as the price of Bitcoin rebounded, Zhao Changpeng's wealth soared, far exceeding the fine that Binance agreed to pay to the US authorities. According to the "2024 Forbes Global Billionaires List" released on April 3 this year, Zhao Changpeng ranked 50th with a net worth of US$33 billion (approximately RMB 239 billion).
Despite facing imprisonment, several industry experts and lawyers said Zhao Changpeng's huge personal wealth will not be affected and is likely to increase. Los Angeles corporate lawyer Trey Lovell said the government is only entitled to any damages or fines imposed, not all of Zhao Changpeng's assets or wealth.
Recently, the price of Bitcoin has gradually fallen after hitting a record high, but it is still up nearly 50% from three months ago. If the virtual asset market continues to rise, Zhao Changpeng may be able to "get rich while serving time in prison."