Binance founder and ex-CEO Changpeng “CZ” Zhao can no longer leave the U.S. for now, following a federal resolve’s ruling on Monday that stayed an earlier bond settlement, which might possibly maybe maybe possibly indulge in allowed Zhao to commute to the United Arab Emirates (UAE).”

“IT IS ORDERED that the condition allowing Defendant to near lend a hand to the UAE pending sentencing is STAYED until such time as this Court resolves the Executive’s motion for evaluate,” U.S. District Reflect Richard Jones wrote.

Jones will weigh a search recordsdata from from prosecutors to end Zhao from traveling outside the U.S. In a filing final week, they said that Zhao “poses a extreme flight probability.” Defense attorneys countered in their contain, subsequent filing that Zhao used to be no longer a flight probability. Zhao holds UAE citizenship and has family there.

Closing Tuesday, Binance agreed to pay $4.3 billion in penalties to resolve an ongoing U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) felony investigation. The DOJ charged the sphere’s splendid cryptocurrency alternate with operating as an unlicensed money transmitting industry (MTB) and violating sanctions regulations.

Read More: Binance to Pay $4.3B Penalty to Procure to the backside of U.S. DOJ Legal Investigation; Changpeng Zhao Resigns, Pleads Guilty to Money Laundering Prices

In a separate motion,  Zhao pleaded guilty in a Seattle Federal courtroom to violating the Financial institution Secrecy Act (BSA) and leading his firm to breach the BSA. Zhao agreed to resign as CEO and to pay a $50 million penalty, and used to be launched on a $175 million private recognizance bond that allowed him to pass away the U.S. offered he returns two weeks sooner than his sentencing date, which is scheduled for Feb. 23, 2024.

The settlements with Binance and Zhao followed no longer as a lot as three weeks after the DOJ secured a guilty verdict against Sam Bankman-Fried, the veteran CEO of collapsed crypto alternate FTX, on fraud and conspiracy charges. Bankman-Fried faces potentially decades in jail.

In their filing, prosecutors highlighted  Zhao’s gargantuan wealth outside the U.S., minimal ties to the country, and station in the UAE, with whom the U.S. would now not indulge in an extradition treaty.

In its closely redacted filing a day later, Zhao’s attorneys out of the ordinary that Zhao voluntarily flew to the U.S. to put up his guilty plea, that his firm had licensed accountability for its actions and that he supposed to abide by the prerequisites of his liberate.