Binance founder CZ Slams New York Times Over Leaked Draft Detailing $4.3B Settlement Talks

• Binance founder Zhao said the New York Times used an unauthorized early draft of his soon-to-be-released memoir and ignored requests to wait for the finalized manuscript.
• The report described 2023 negotiations that led to Binance agreeing to a $4.3 billion settlement with U.S. authorities.
• The draft also recounted Zhao’s four-month prison sentence and a detainer issued by Immigration and Customs Enforcement near the end of his custody.

Binance founder Changpeng Zhao slammed a New York Times article on Friday that detailed previously undisclosed Department of Justice (DOJ) negotiations from a draft of his memoir without permission.

Zhao wrote that his team had asked the New York Times to “hold off on the article till just a few days before publishing” and to use the official copy of the manuscript. “They couldn’t wait,” he said. In another post, he added that the newspaper “only had a copy of a very early draft, without permission.”

Zhao’s post came as The New York Times published an article on Friday detailing content from a draft of his upcoming memoir, Freedom of Money. 

Binance Coin (BNB) was trading at $596, down by 2.9% in the last 24 hours. On Stocktwits, retail sentiment around BNB remained in 'bearish' territory, with 'low' chatter levels over the past day. 

DOJ Negotiations And Prison Account

The report described behind-the-scenes negotiations between Binance and the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) in 2023, during which prosecutors initially sought a $6.8 billion penalty before the company ultimately agreed to pay $4.3 billion.

According to the article, Zhao consulted more than a dozen lawyers during the process and considered remaining outside the United States rather than returning to face charges. He ultimately pleaded guilty to a single count of violating an anti-money-laundering statute and stepped down as Binance’s chief executive officer. He was sentenced to four months in prison in 2024. 

The draft manuscript also recounted Zhao’s time in prison, including interactions with guards and inmates, and detailed a previously unreported detainer placed by Immigration and Customs Enforcement that briefly put him under additional custody near the end of his sentence. 

Zhao’s lawyer, Teresa Goody Guillén, said that the article relied on material “that is neither in CZ’s book nor in his words,” adding that readers would see his “real words once the finished book is published soon.”

Zhao said in the previous month that he planned to self-publish the memoir in February or March of this year.

Read also: Analysts Are Calling ‘Jane Street 10 AM Bitcoin Dump’ Theory ‘Fake News’

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