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Trump pardons convicted Binance founder

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Re: Trump pardons convicted Binance founder

#811

Post by Terr_ »

newfriend wrote: post #800
mcphage wrote: post #679

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The White House is a pretty significant symbol of this country, so yeah, I think they might care that a big chunk of it was just torn down.

You think they're too dumb to understand the difference between "tearing down" and "renovating"? I assure you, they are not.

> > a big chunk of it was just torn down

> You think they're too dumb to understand the difference between "tearing down" and "renovating"?

Are you? You think the East Wing is being "renovated"?

Renovation is renewal, repair, restoring function and safety.

What's happening instead? Knocking the safe and functional East Wing flat (walls, roof, both floors, 30+ internal rooms) and replacing it with a completely new structure with new foundations and a different purpose... and with a new footprint larger than the entire White House of 2024!

Nowhere even remotely close to the same thing. Might as well brag that you "repaired" your sedan by selling it and buying a new truck.

Re: Trump pardons convicted Binance founder

#812

Post by amanaplanacanal »

bobthepanda wrote: post #771
amanaplanacanal wrote: post #720

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Midterms are coming up next year. If they are afraid their association with Trump might take them down, they'll crack. Honestly I suspect fear of Trump is really their only motivation right now.

So long as most of these states have party primaries, particularly closed party primaries, it doesn't really matter because anyone insufficiently pro-Trump is getting primaried hard.

They still have to face competition in the general though. If Republican voters are disgusted enough, they might vote for a Democrat, but they are more likely to stay home and just not vote. Which could be enough for them to lose their seats.

Re: Trump pardons convicted Binance founder

#813

Post by disgruntledphd2 »

miohtama wrote: post #346

For the accurate context: CZ was pardoned for a single charge of failure to have an effective compliance program. No fraud, no victims, no criminal history. No money laundering. CZ is the first and only known first-time offender in U.S. history to receive a prison sentence for this single, non-fraud-related charge. The judge found no evidence that he knew of any illicit transactions and that it was reasonable for him…

Sorry, this is not true. All financial institutions are required to have AML controls, which cost a lot of money.

These controls are mostly performative, but Binance wildly flouted them. This pardon means that basically no crypto company needs to worry about AML now, which is bad for the world.

The reason that nobody gets convicted for this is because they have somewhat adequate controls, whereas Binance basically welcomed money launderers with open hands.

Re: Trump pardons convicted Binance founder

#814

Post by disgruntledphd2 »

refurb wrote: post #793
miohtama wrote: post #346

For the accurate context: CZ was pardoned for a single charge of failure to have an effective compliance program. No fraud, no victims, no criminal history. No money laundering. CZ is the first and only known first-time offender in U.S. history to receive a prison sentence for this single, non-fraud-related charge. The judge found no evidence that he knew of any illicit transactions and that it was reasonable for him…

I don't get the outrage either. He was sentenced to 4 months in prison. He already served that time and got out. So what does a parden get him? No criminal record? This pardon seems rather minor to me.

He can run Binance again.

Re: Trump pardons convicted Binance founder

#815

Post by Havoc »

madmountaingoat wrote: post #438
Havoc wrote: post #312

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>I cannot comprehend how half of Americans are fine with this corrupt leader? Don't think fox news is going to report that he enriched the prez...

I think most actually know and don't think it's all that much different from what other have done for decades. I'm not saying they are correct to think it, just that they do think it. They think it's refreshing that the corruption is in the open. It's a societal boy-cried-wolf numbness. People are tired of the of finger pointing and screaming about every thing and now don't listen when the real stuff goes down.

Yeah that seems possible too. Sad but plausible

Re: Trump pardons convicted Binance founder

#816

Post by miohtama »

disgruntledphd2 wrote: post #813
miohtama wrote: post #346

For the accurate context: CZ was pardoned for a single charge of failure to have an effective compliance program. No fraud, no victims, no criminal history. No money laundering. CZ is the first and only known first-time offender in U.S. history to receive a prison sentence for this single, non-fraud-related charge. The judge found no evidence that he knew of any illicit transactions and that it was reasonable for him…

Sorry, this is not true. All financial institutions are required to have AML controls, which cost a lot of money. These controls are mostly performative, but Binance wildly flouted them. This pardon means that basically no crypto company needs to worry about AML now, which is bad for the world. The reason that nobody gets convicted for this is because they have somewhat adequate controls, whereas Binance basically we…

The point being, no money laundering was pointed out to the court, although I sure this happened to some scale. Binance works with the police, before and after the conviction, it's not a laundromat like some Russian cryptocurrency exchanges.

But you are right the AML controls were weak, and CZ was convicted for this. KYC requirements arrived to Binance very late. But they were not convicted of fraud (like Sam Bankman-Fried from FTX). No users lost money. A lot of commenters get this wrong.

The US banks get slapped for similar compliance breaches all the time e.g.:

https://qz.com/bank-of-america-bofa-occ-bank-secrecy-act-bsa...

Re: Trump pardons convicted Binance founder

#817

Post by TiredOfLife »

apstls wrote: post #802
kbd wrote: post #233

The pardon power has been so abused these past few administrations that it's clear there should be constitutional changes in the pardon power, either congressional review, or strip it altogether.

Genuinely curious: what were the abuses by the Biden and Obama administrations?

Biden promised not to pardon his son and then pardoned his son. And not simply pardoned. Pardoned also for crimes not yet discovered

Re: Trump pardons convicted Binance founder

#818

Post by nobody9999 »

n3storm wrote: post #254
bityard wrote: post #207

Earlier quoted context omitted.

[flagged]

In many parts of Europe a couple of strikes would have taken place. Usans are numb or has no social conscience and muscle.

>In many parts of Europe a couple of strikes would have taken place. Usans are numb or has no social conscience and muscle.

Americans are not numb. And we have both of those things, or at least most of us do. What we don't have are strong unions. Less than 10% of American workers are union members.

What's more, for as long as there have been unionization efforts in the US (150+ years), the forces of corporations, aided by the government -- to this day -- have suppressed those efforts -- for a long time, brutally and fatally -- and such suppression (although generally not with clubs and guns these days) continues, often with government support.

As such, even a "general strike" would have minimal effect, as many union members are forbidden by law to strike (in various jurisdictions, police, fire departments and others).

The vast majority of US workers are "at will" workers whose employment can be terminated at any time, for any (or no) reason. Workers can do so just the same as employers, so it's definitely fair!

More than half of Americans can't afford an unexpected $USD600 expense. As such, how many do you expect to essentially quit their jobs (possibly multiple jobs) to join a "general strike"?

Labor and unions don't work in the US the same way they do in say, Iceland, Sweden, Denmark and other countries with high levels of unionization[0]

As much as I'd love to see repeated "general strikes" in the US, protesting the anti-democratic (small 'd') assaults on the rule of law, freedom of expression and due process, given the state of organized labor in the US, that's just not going to happen.

As such, we organize where we can and mobilize widely. As the pain comes, more and more of folks will begin to see the problem. I hope it won't come too late.

[0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/International_comparisons_of_t...

Re: Trump pardons convicted Binance founder

#819

Post by arp242 »

giarc wrote: post #196
dreamcompiler wrote: post #108

I'm sure SBF and Elizabeth Holmes will be next.

Holmes has nothing to offer him.

They're trying to turn it in to a culture war/"big pharma" type issue. They've been trying since he got in to office – see: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=44002658

Will it work? If I had to bet then I'd say probably not. For any other president this would not even merit any thought beyond "lol" and that alone is worrying.

Re: Trump pardons convicted Binance founder

#820

Post by noobermin »

noisy_boy wrote: post #647

There should be a limit on the number of pardons a president can do during their tenure so that they have to at least think a bit before using it. It is a very powerful tool that actually allows a last resort. But this kind of egregious abuse of it's power means it needs to be kept in check.

Add this to the list of abuses this admin has done. This is just one of the legal ones.
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