The CZ pardon continues to face questions as critics link it to a supposed pay to play deal with Donald Trump. The former Binance founder, Changpeng “CZ” Zhao, received a presidential pardon in October, months after serving four months in prison in 2024 over Anti-Money Laundering (AML) failures at Binance.
On Anthony Pompliano’s Pomp Podcast, CZ’s lawyer Teresa Goody Guillen rejected claims that the CZ pardon was bought or tied to Trump’s crypto ventures. She called the accusations a “pile up of a lot of false statements.”
Guillen said media reports that describe World Liberty as Trump’s company do not match what she has seen.
“The media continues to refer to World Liberty as Trump’s company, and I haven’t seen anything to show me that that’s true,”
she said.
Teresa Goody Guillen Rejects ‘Pay to Play’ CZ Pardon Narrative
During the Pomp Podcast, Teresa Goody Guillen addressed the pay to play narrative around the CZ pardon. She argued that critics connect business entities, blockchain transactions and Trump-linked ventures without confirming how they actually operate.
“People are making these assumptions that just show a fundamental misunderstanding of how either business works or how blockchain works,” she said. Her comments focused on how the story around the Binance founder and World Liberty formed in public debate.
According to Guillen, the CZ pardon has been framed as a simple exchange between Trump and the Binance founder, while the legal record centers on the Binance AML violations and the plea agreement. She said she has not seen evidence that CZ paid for a pardon or directed funds toward Trump through World Liberty.
Binance AML Case, Prison Term and Trump’s CZ Pardon
The Binance AML case required CZ to admit that Binance failed to set up effective controls against money laundering. Regulators said the exchange did not properly detect and report suspicious flows.
Because of that case, the Binance founder stepped down from his CEO role. Binance accepted penalties and agreed to strengthen its compliance program. The case did not include charges of fraud, customer theft or direct victim losses, which Guillen later highlighted when describing why she viewed the outcome as unusual.
Despite those details, CZ served about four months in prison in 2024. Then, in October, Donald Trump issued the CZ pardon and said that what CZ was locked up for “wasn’t a crime.” That statement placed the Binance AML case, the prison term and the pardon in the middle of a wider political and legal fight.
Elizabeth Warren’s CZ Pardon Criticism and Political Immunity Concerns
Senator Elizabeth Warren called the CZ pardon “corruption.” She claimed that the Binance founder “boosted” one of Trump’s crypto ventures and “lobbied for a pardon.” Her comments suggested that support for Trump-linked projects and the pardon were connected.
CZ replied that Elizabeth Warren could not get her “facts right.” He disputed her description of his conviction and his role around Trump’s crypto ventures.
On the Pomp Podcast, Teresa Goody Guillen said Warren mischaracterized the case. She noted that Warren referred to CZ being convicted of a crime “he wasn’t convicted of” and mentioned further “criminal liability” tied to the pardon. Guillen used the CZ pardon dispute to raise questions about the scope of immunity for United States politicians when they speak about individuals and legal outcomes.
“This is actually an area where I’m hoping that we pay a little bit more attention because you know, the immunity that’s given to these folks is not what our founding fathers had wanted,”
she said. Her remarks linked the CZ pardon controversy to a broader discussion about political speech and accountability.
CZ Pardon Framed as Part of a ‘War on Crypto’
In the same interview, Teresa Goody Guillen tied the CZ pardon and the Binance AML case to what she called a war on crypto. She said CZ was “pardoned for justice” and argued that his treatment differed from that of executives in traditional finance facing similar compliance issues.
She said CZ is “the only person who has ever been prosecuted and then worse, sent to prison for you know this specific charge or anything similar with the characteristics of like no fraud and no victims, no criminal history or anything like that.”
Guillen connected the timing of the Binance founder’s prosecution to the FTX collapse, saying that pressure to act against the industry rose after that event. “I think it was part of the war on crypto, and at that point, this was close after the FTX collapse and I think that the war in crypto had to go against somebody, and they had to prosecute somebody and really persecute someone. And unfortunately, that ended up being Binance and CZ,” she said.
Her comments keep the CZ pardon, the Binance founder, the Binance AML case, World Liberty, Elizabeth Warren, Donald Trump and the claimed war on crypto intertwined in an ongoing legal and political dispute.
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Tatevik Avetisyan is an editor at Kriptoworld who covers emerging crypto trends, blockchain innovation, and altcoin developments. She is passionate about breaking down complex stories for a global audience and making digital finance more accessible.
📅 Published: November 17, 2025 • 🕓 Last updated: November 17, 2025
