When will Binance founder Zhao Changpeng be released from prison?

Author: protos Source: protos Translation: Shan Ouba, Golden Finance

Recently, some Binance fans excitedly shared the news on the X platform that Binance founder Zhao Changpeng (CZ) will be released from prison on August 30. However, this is not the case.

On April 30, U.S. District Judge Richard Jones sentenced CZ to four months in prison and recommended that he serve his sentence at SeaTac Federal Prison in Seattle. Many people seem to have mistakenly believed that CZ was imprisoned that day, and therefore concluded that August 30 was the release date. But in fact, CZ's legal team - including Quinn Emanuel Urquhart & Sullivan, Davis Wright Treman, and Latham Watkins - worked hard to win him a few extra weeks of freedom.

As of May 16, CZ had not yet entered the Bureau of Prisons’ detention facility until a few days later, when CZ, his attorney, and the Office of Probation and Pretrial Services confirmed a jail date in late May.

A current check of the Bureau of Prisons database also shows that CZ is not at the Seattle airport, but is being held at the Lompoc Federal Correctional Institution II, a low-security federal prison located three hours north of Los Angeles.

When will CZ be released from prison?

Unless CZ’s circumstances change, he will not leave FCI Lompoc II on August 30. Instead, his current release date is set for September 29.

The Fifth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution guarantees due process to all persons within the United States, including noncitizens like CZ. This array of safeguards encompasses all of the unique features of CZ’s sentence, including the fact that he was jailed nearly a month after being sentenced, that he is in a lower-security prison, that he is not serving his sentence at Seattle International Airport, and that there were delays during earlier court proceedings.