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Good morning, Roca Nation. Here are today’s four need-to-know stories:
New York City, Virginia, and New Jersey are holding elections in closely watched races that mark a major test for both political parties.
Tesla shareholders are voting this week on a $1T compensation package for CEO Elon Musk (free)
The Trump Administration said it would pay for about half of November's food assistance benefits
A Mexican mayor was shot and killed during a Day of the Dead celebration in Michoacán (free)
Today is the first in what we expect to be a recurring series that looks at alleged corruption in the Trump Administration. Simply put, we’ve noticed repeated deals with conflicts of interest. We want to understand what’s actually happening, providing the arguments both for and against the president’s dealings.
By Max Frost
Changpeng Zhao seemed uncomfortable in the federal courthouse in Seattle in November 2023.
“I’ve not caused problems before, I’ve never been a criminal. And I’ve never been into a courthouse before,” Zhao told the judge. “So this is new to me.”
He proceeded to plead guilty, agree to have his company pay a $4.3B fine, and step down as CEO of Binance, the world’s largest crypto exchange.
Prosecutors alleged that Binance had created a business model that attracted money launderers, terrorists, and sex traffickers, then failed to report over 100,000 suspicious transactions, including ones by sanctioned governments, al-Qaeda, and the Islamic State. When US authorities tried to crack down on Zhao and the platform, he would move countries and relocate the company. The US government said Zhao had caused “significant harm to US national security.”
Eventually, the risk of American punishment became overwhelming, looming over Binance like a guillotine. Zhao agreed to pay the record-breaking $4.3B fine and have Binance “acknowledge our company’s responsibility for historical, criminal compliance violations.” Last year, he received and served a four-month prison sentence.
When Trump began his second term, Zhao remained a convicted felon, and his company was banned from the US. But he had billions of dollars and a deep rolodex, and the president had become heavily invested in crypto.
Zhao proceeded to put his assets to work, helping the Trump family earn millions of dollars. Last month, Trump pardoned Zhao.
Today, we look at what happened, the conflicts of interest, and the best defense against them.
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Editor’s Note
What do you think: Corrupt or clean? Let us know by replying to this email. Also, we’re sure we’ll get some pushback from Trump supporters. We’ll preempt their criticism here by saying that we’ve written about corruption by both parties and their politicians. We just want to know what’s actually happening, without the media spin.
And be sure to check out our latest articles below if you’ve missed them:
Thanks for reading,
Max and Max
