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Trump pardons convicted Binance founder

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Re: Trump pardons convicted Binance founder

#861

Post by ajross »

mlrtime wrote: post #860
ajross wrote: post #741

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't buy it. A president that will literally direct his AG in public to prosecute his political enemies is simply not bound by norms, period. To pretend that he'd never have pardoned Zhao but for Obama's "increased number of pardons" is, to be blunt, ridiculous on its face. And in context, you're doing exactly what I mocked above, tut tutting about civil behavior and norms and The Discourse while the system burns…

>I don't buy it. A president that will literally direct his AG in public to prosecute his political enemies. This is what happened to Trump though, the established politicians do not like him and did everything they could to stop him from running.

> the established politicians do not like him and did everything they could to stop him from running

Again, this is a excuse-making whopper. The republican aisle in the senate refused to convict him twice, which would have prevented him from running. I won't argue "do not like him" in the abstract, but in practice established politicians in his party are 100% behind the guy.

Re: Trump pardons convicted Binance founder

#862

Post by nailer »

harrisi wrote: post #758
hshdhdhehd wrote: post #345

Poor drug dealers: Extrajudicial murder in international waters. Rich drug dealers: Freedom. Be a rich drug dealer.

Is there any proof that any of the Venezuelan boats were drug dealers? Any proof in court, ideally?

Submarines generally aren’t fishing.

Re: Trump pardons convicted Binance founder

#863

Post by nailer »

miohtama wrote: post #816
disgruntledphd2 wrote: post #813

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

Compare with TD bank, that laundered money for the cartels - AFAIK nobody is in prison.

Re: Trump pardons convicted Binance founder

#864

Post by nailer »

actionfromafar wrote: post #804
cjbgkagh wrote: post #101

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What about the whataboutism of whataboutism? I.e. meta-whataboutism The use of whataboutism and the ‘calling out’ of whataboutisms are both mechanisms of narrative control.

”Using logic and ethics against me is unfair?” Friends of ”I thought there would be no fact checking ”

The person is making a valid point about the inconsistency in how non compliance was handled in traditional finance and blockchain.

Re: Trump pardons convicted Binance founder

#865

Post by nailer »

topaz0 wrote: post #301
bmandale wrote: post #223

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Is autopen a particular sore point in the US for some reason?

There's a conspiracy theory that Biden wasn't competent enough to sign stuff, at least for some period at the end of his term, with the implication being that none of those presidential acts are valid. Anybody who believes this is mired in an impenetrable misinformation bubble and should be dismissed out of hand.

There’s a conspiracy theory that Biden was secretly competent at the end of his presidency despite public appearances otherwise.

Re: Trump pardons convicted Binance founder

#866

Post by UncleMeat »

joyeuse6701 wrote: post #744
txcwg002 wrote: post #726

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What do you think of this counterpoint from Balaji? "CZ deserves his pardon. His show trial of a prosecution was a combination of regulatory railroading and ethnic persecution for being Chinese-Canadian. Imagine if Macron was held personally responsible for every crime committed by the 67M citizens of France, and you'll get the absurdity of holding CZ personally responsible for the actions of a few of the 250M+ Binan…

Comparing gov’t officials to civilians is a stupid comparison. Biden abolishing police is hyperbole. CZ enabled a lot of dark shit. He is somehow simultaneously so powerful as to help millions of Chinese, but powerless to do anything about a few thousand of criminals and pedophiles? This is not a serious take.

It isn't just hyperbole it is completely divorced from reality. Biden said "fund the police" at a state of the union address. Federal law enforcement didn't see cuts. Funding for state police (the bulk of police around the country) increased, with very few localities actually shifting funds from police to other things.

Re: Trump pardons convicted Binance founder

#867

Post by nilamo »

nailer wrote: post #862
harrisi wrote: post #758

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Is there any proof that any of the Venezuelan boats were drug dealers? Any proof in court, ideally?

Submarines generally aren’t fishing.

And we're ok with murdering dozens of people that might maybe have some kind of drugs on them? In peacetime? Without evidence? Outside of our own territory/water?

We're lucky Venezuela hasn't attacked us back yet.

Re: Trump pardons convicted Binance founder

#868

Post by ClarityJones »

cthalupa wrote: post #132
ClarityJones wrote: post #107

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Except, correct me if this is wrong, but he wasn't even convicted of money laundering, let alone the underlying crimes you suggest he was launder the proceeds of. It was simply for failing to register / setup an appropriate AML system. Whether any ML occurred, by whom, and in relation to what... are outstanding questions. If he had done all that and all they got him on was a 4-month technicality, that tends to sugges…

I'm not sure you understand the point. It isn't that CZ himself was specifically putting forth the effort to launder money. It isn't that he was specifically doing things to try and make it easier. The point is that he had a legal duty to actively attempt to prevent money laundering. Binance was legally required to do this to operate in the US, and did not. The court case produced messages from the Chief Compliance O…

The guy was punished with a 4-month jail sentence. It's reasonable to assume his crime was of the sort that would result in a 3-6 month sentence... generally misdemeanors.

It's certainly in a different category than speeding or jaywalking, but it's a lot closer to that than to the 150 years that Bernie Madoff got.

Re: Trump pardons convicted Binance founder

#869

Post by sojournerc »

aaronbrethorst wrote: post #753
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.

"boooooth siiiiiiides" screamed the reactionary centrist.

Biden pardoned his son for clear crimes, yes!

Re: Trump pardons convicted Binance founder

#870

Post by thunky »

LinXitoW wrote: post #418
thunky wrote: post #300

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> around 36% sat at home or abstained, but in practicality they basically said they were fine with whoever won. Or, they were not fine with whoever won. We've got two abismal parties to choose from. Yes, there's an agument for voting for the lesser of two evils, but it's not a great one. I'd like to believe at least some of those 36% would vote for a decent candidate/party. But once you lose faith in the system, and…

Here in Germany, we have like 20 different parties on the ballot, with maybe 6 of those having a reasonable chance to actually get any seats. Not a SINGLE ONE perfectly represents me and my issues. I still voted, because my personal laziness or moral superiority does not trump the very real world effects of the "bad ones" winning. Lazy people like you with post hoc rationalizations exist here too, and they're just as…

> I still voted, because my personal laziness or moral superiority does not trump the very real world effects of the "bad ones" winning. Lazy people like you with post hoc rationalizations exist here too, and they're just as bad and wrong.

We're not talking about me. So maybe cool it.

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