CZ Reveals Why He Didn’t Use UAE Citizenship to Avoid US Charges

Changpeng Zhao says he viewed confronting the case as a matter of personal responsibility rather than avoiding prosecution. This week, Binance founder Changpeng Zhao (CZ) finally revealed why he chose to face US prosecutors during his AML violation case despite holding UAE citizenship that could have kept him from the grasp of US law enforcement. His account offered a rare explanation of his thinking before a four-month prison sentence and the end of his leadership at Binance. CZ Says Running From the Case Was Never an Option Zhao talked about the matter in a fireside chat with Anthony Scaramucci on August 19 at the Wyoming Blockchain Symposium in Jackson Hole, stating that he had become a citizen of the United Arab Emirates approximately six months before the Binance case became public and that the country has no extradition treaty with the USA. He could have stayed in the Middle East and avoided US courts altogether, but he said that option didn’t feel honorable to him. “Actually, I was granted citizenship of the UAE, but I didn’t want to leverage that,” Zhao explained. “That’s just the wrong thing to do.” According to him, resolving the case one way or the other was better for h...