BlockTower Capital Founder: CZ Committed Same Crimes as SBF, US Gives Lesser Penalty to SBF to Preserve User Funds and Other Considerations

On September 22, Ari Paul, Founder and CIO of BlockTower Capital, objected to CryptoQuant CEO Ki Young Ju's affirmative view of CZ, stating that CZ had committed the same crimes as SBF and could be imprisoned for life if the federal government so desired. CZ stole customer deposits and gambled. He was convicted of dozens of crimes and defrauded the retail industry in dozens of ways. He knowingly facilitated money laundering and worse for criminal syndicates. Why was he only charged with a little? Because the federal government, for one, was concerned that he would have swept up more than $30 billion in retail funds by bribing UAE sheikhs to obtain sovereign immunity, and, for another, the federal government wanted a large number of Binance documents that would prove the industry's guilt. Notably, the Reuters report cited by Ari Paul alleges that CZ acquired approximately $11 billion in client assets through trading firms. In response, CryptoQuant CEO Ki Young Ju cited the U.S. Department of Justice's statement of allegations against CZ, saying that the Reuters report was not corroborated, but rather circumstantial and did not result in a legal conviction. And “the DOJ did not charge CZ with embezzling customer funds, but with abetting money laundering.”