Binance founder Changpeng “CZ” Zhao is preparing to sue US Senator Elizabeth Warren for defamation, his legal team says, after she criticized his recent pardon by US President Donald Trump.
Based on reports, the legal notice argues that Warren’s phrasing wrongly equates Zhao’s guilty plea with a money-laundering conviction and harms his reputation.
In 2023, Zhao pleaded guilty as part of a settlement tied to failures in Binance’s anti-money-laundering program.
The company agreed to pay roughly $4.3 billion and Zhao served about four months behind bars, according to court records and reporting.
CZ pleaded guilty to a criminal money laundering charge and was sentenced to prison.
But then he financed President Trump’s stablecoin and lobbied for a pardon.
Today, he got it.
Senator Warren posted on X (formerly Twitter) in the wake of the pardon, writing that CZ “pleaded guilty to a criminal money laundering charge” and alleging he had used influence tied to a Trump-linked stablecoin.
Her message framed the pardon as an example of corruption that Congress should oppose. Warren’s official Senate statement repeated criticisms of the pardon.
Legal experts say defamation suits involving public figures are hard to win in the US because plaintiffs must show false statements made with actual malice — that is, with knowledge they were false or with reckless disregard for the truth.
But lawyers for Zhao point out that posts made on social media by members of Congress may not always be protected by congressional immunities, opening a possible legal path.
Reports quote the CZ camp insisting on a factual distinction: his plea related to lapses in compliance and the company’s failure to maintain adequate controls, not a formal money-laundering conviction.
That difference matters legally and in public perception, his lawyers say. Coverage also notes that the broader settlement and sentence drew wide attention because of the size of the fine and the sensitive nature of the allegations tied to illicit activity on some parts of the exchange.
Featured image from Unsplash, chart from TradingView
