Yi He Defends Changpeng Zhao Amidst Legal Challenges

In a letter to the judge, Binance co-founder Yi He recounted her acquaintance with Changpeng Zhao (CZ), as well as his goals and actions as the CEO of the exchange.

Ideals

The top executive began by stating that she is a partner of CZ and the mother of his three children. She met him in the spring of 2014 at a conference.

“At that time, he had just sold his house to buy Bitcoin. His assets plummeted due to falling prices, but this did not shake his obsession with the technology. Zhao’s speech was filled with idealism about the positive changes blockchain could bring to the world,” He recalls.

Later, CZ founded Binance, but his “ultimate goal was not money,” claims the co-founder of the exchange.

He also recounted how they worked together at OKCoin. During another market downturn, an employee fell ill with leukemia, prompting colleagues to organize a fundraising effort.

This later inspired Zhao and He to create the charitable project Caring BTC, which became the precursor to Binance Charity.

“Many people believe philanthropy is only for PR. Some use it as a means to offset taxes. […] As for CZ, regardless of material wealth, he takes charity seriously and assumes social responsibility through kindness and a spirit of humanity,” the letter states.

According to the company’s co-founder, in the early days of Binance, users often sent altcoins to the platform that it did not support, resulting in lost funds. Although the exchange’s policy implied personal responsibility for funds, CZ decided to assist users.

“Under Zhao’s leadership, Binance helped more than 180,000 clients recover assets totaling over $441 million,” He noted.

“Do the Right Thing”

As Zhao’s colleague asserts, CZ’s main business motto is “do the right thing.” This also applied to cases of crime or fraud.

Once, a Chinese user reported to support that he was deceived into investing in a crypto project and then had his funds stolen, which were sent to Binance.

Then, on Zhao’s advice, the exchange froze the suspicious transaction until law enforcement intervened, even though it was not obliged to do so. Ultimately, the fraudster returned the money and closed the account, He shared.

Despite media attempts to portray CZ as a villain, “millions of community members and ordinary people consider him a hero of the industry,” the top executive is convinced. The former head of the exchange was also a “good boss,” helping colleagues in difficult situations.

“His commitment to transparency and honesty often clashed with the expectations of a small group of employees accustomed to an elitist corporate environment. This led some of them to leave the company indignantly and make false accusations in the media,” He noted.

Mistakes

To allow Binance to continue operating, CZ decided to fly to the US and plead guilty, the co-founder of the exchange emphasized.

“When choosing between personal interests and the interests of society, Zhao always preferred to sacrifice himself,” she added.

He described herself as CZ’s “life partner.” According to her, he leads a simple lifestyle: buying inexpensive clothes on Amazon, traveling to meetings on a scooter, and driving a six-seater Toyota van.

In the top executive’s opinion, Zhao’s main mistake was “ignorance”:

“Since it was a startup without specialists, the founding team members had no legal education, and most of the early leaders, except for CZ, could not even read English.”

With little experience and legal knowledge, the founder of the exchange won users over with “honesty, incorruptibility, and a sense of responsibility for the industry,” although he made mistakes, He believes.

At the end of the letter, she urged the judge to make a fair decision after reviewing more comprehensive information about the case and Zhao.

Prosecutors have demanded a 36-month prison sentence for the former CEO of Binance for violating anti-money laundering laws. The maximum discussed was a 10-year term.

Zhao himself apologized for “poor decisions” and took “full responsibility” for his actions in a note to the court.

The hearing to determine the measure of restraint for the founder of the exchange will take place on April 30.