CZ Lawyer Says Trump Pardon Fair, Not ‘Pay-For-Play’

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A lawyer for Binance co-founder Changpeng Zhao (CZ) has denied allegations that his pardon from US President Donald Trump was part of a “pay-to-play” deal.

during appearance In Anthony Pompliano’s “Pomp Pomp Pomp,” Teresa Judy Guillén said that criticism of her client’s pardon is “an accumulation of a lot of false statements.”

She said the request followed the standard government review process, passing through the Justice Department’s pardon attorney and the White House counsel’s office before arriving at Trump’s desk.

Democratic lawmakers, including Senator Elizabeth Warren, claimed that Zhao’s pardon was politically motivated and tied to Binance’s support for the Trump family’s World Liberty Financial company. Gillen rejected the allegations, saying there is no evidence that WLFI is Trump’s company.

“People make these assumptions that just show a fundamental misunderstanding of how business works or how blockchain works,” she said. “You have to write the justification, and then a variety of people will review it.”

WLFI is not really a Trump project

Czechoslovakia’s personal lawyer said she “hasn’t seen anything” that shows her that WLFI is actually Trump’s company.

While Binance has listed the project’s governance token and stablecoin USD1, Guillén noted that several other major platforms have listed it as well.

WLFI Markets (Source: CoinMarketCap)

Lawyer says pardoning Czechoslovakia was fair

CZ was sentenced to four months in prison in 2024 for violating the US Bank Secrecy Act when he failed to implement proper anti-money laundering (AML) and know-your-customer (KYC) controls at Binance. As part of the plea deal, he had to step down from his then position as CEO of the stock exchange in addition to the prison sentence.

Trump pardoned him in October, saying the Binance co-founder was locked up for something that “wasn’t a crime” during the former Joe Biden administration’s “witch hunt” over cryptocurrencies.

Guillen said her client was “pardoned for the sake of justice” because he was a scapegoat for the Biden administration’s war on cryptocurrencies.

“I think that was part of the war on cryptocurrencies, and at that point, this was soon after the FTX collapse and I think the war on cryptocurrencies should have gone against someone, they should have prosecuted someone and really persecuted someone,” she said, adding that Binance and CZ were targeted.

She also said there were previous cases in which CEOs of major traditional finance institutions were convicted on the same charges as her client, but did not serve prison time.

In the Czechoslovakia case, Guillén said there was no fraud or victims. There was no criminal record either, she said, adding that the prison sentences for the crimes for which Czechoslovakia was convicted are an anomaly.

Czechoslovakia says any $4.3 billion recovery will be invested in the United States

Binance’s settlement agreement with regulators also included a $4.3 billion fine, one of the largest in cryptocurrency history.

On CZ said this was a “sensitive question”.

Oh, a sensitive question

1. I really appreciate the forgiveness. There’s a balance between asking for more for “what’s fair” versus appreciating what you actually get.

2. If we get any refunds, we will invest them in America anyway, to show our appreciation.

I haven’t asked yet, I guess🙏

— Czechoslovakia 🔶 BNB (@cz_binance) November 17, 2025

He said he appreciates forgiveness, and that there is a balance when it comes to “asking for more for ‘what’s fair’ versus appreciating what you’ve already gotten.”

“If we get any money back, we will invest it in America anyway, to show our appreciation,” CZ added.

He said he did not believe Binance or its legal team had filed for a refund yet.

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