A lawyer for the founder of a leading exchange said, "They made him a scapegoat."

Source: BTCHaber
Original Title: CZ’s lawyer speaks: “They made him a scapegoat”
Original Link: https://www.btchaber.com/cznin-avukati-konustu-gunah-kecisi-yaptilar/

The lawyer of a leading exchange’s founder, Changpeng Zhao (CZ), Terresa Goody, made striking remarks on a podcast.

Lawyer Terresa Goody was asked whether CZ would receive a pardon from U.S. President Donald Trump. She stated: “CZ was actually prosecuted because the leading exchange failed to implement and maintain anti-money laundering measures and compliance programs. Simply put, this is a regulatory violation. It’s a compliance issue. There was no money laundering.” Goody added: “The issue here is simply the failure of the leading exchange to implement an anti-money laundering program.”

“CZ should not have been prosecuted”

Goody made a similar argument: “He was pardoned because he should not have been prosecuted in the first place. Even the President himself, when pardoning him, stated that he didn’t think CZ committed a crime and shouldn’t have been prosecuted. So essentially, he was pardoned for the sake of justice.”

Attorney Goody further claimed that CZ is “the only person who has been prosecuted and imprisoned for this specific type of offense or similar offenses—without fraud, without victims, and with no criminal record.”

“They needed a scapegoat”

When asked why CZ was treated differently, Goody said: “I think this is part of the war on crypto. At this point, this process happened immediately after the FTX collapse.” She continued: “I believe this war on crypto needed a target. They needed to prosecute someone, really needed a ‘scapegoat,’ and unfortunately, that person and institution became the leading exchange and CZ.”

“Trump has no direct connection to the project”

One of the most controversial questions after the pardon was whether there was a “money-for-pardon” relationship between the leading exchange and President Trump. It’s known that a decentralized finance project is managed directly by Trump’s son. However, CZ’s lawyer argued there is “no evidence” supporting this claim: “People keep mentioning the project as if it’s Trump’s company. But I haven’t seen anything to prove this is true. I’ve seen some reports about entities related to Trump holding minority shares, but I haven’t seen any concrete evidence that this is directly Trump’s company.”

“USD1 accusations are illogical”

Goody responded to the “covert payment” accusations based on the existence of the USD1 stablecoin on the leading exchange’s network: “Many of these accusations don’t make sense. For example, there’s a stablecoin on the leading exchange’s network. This is public, transparent, publicly available information. Lots of people do this. Just because I post an ad on a website doesn’t mean I have a special relationship with the site’s former CEO.”

Goody said people “make these assumptions basically without understanding how the process works or how blockchain works.” She continued: “They don’t know how stablecoins work, nor do they know what the business model is.”

Goody further explained: “It’s like saying: you buy wheat from me, you pay me in Swiss francs, so I invest in Swiss francs, and I provide ‘money-for-privilege’ to Swiss politicians. Does that make sense? The same thing is being claimed here.”

Will CZ return?

Goody claimed CZ will not return to the leading exchange and pointed out the restrictions imposed by lawsuits from U.S. regulators: “The leading exchange is still under restrictions resulting from lawsuits by the Department of Justice, Commodity Futures Trading Commission, Financial Crimes Enforcement Network, and Office of Foreign Assets Control. It’s really insane. Most companies deal with at most one or two agencies. They’re being sued by five agencies at once: no fraud, no other crimes, but five different agencies.”