Binance founder and former CEO Changpeng Zhao has been released from prison two days early after a four-month sentence in the United States.

The 47-year-old was initially scheduled to be released on Sept. 29, but due to the date falling on a weekend, federal rules allowed Changpeng Zhao an early release from Long Beach Residential Reentry Management, Bloomberg reported.

The Binance (BNB) founder began his sentence in May 2024 after being indicted for failing to implement proper anti-money laundering and sanctions regulations at Binance.

Zhao received a relatively lenient sentence compared to the three-year term that the U.S. Department of Justice had sought.

In November 2023, Zhao and Binance pleaded guilty to violations of U.S. anti-money laundering and sanctions regulations. Some of the cases involved facilitating transactions for countries under U.S. sanctions, including Iran and Cuba.

As part of his plea deal, the US government required Binance to pay $4.3 billion in fines, while Zhao personally paid a $50 million fine. He also agreed to step down from his position as CEO of the company.

The settlement prohibits Zhao from “managing or operating” the company, though the specific details remain unclear.

While reports initially suggested a three-year ban, Binance CEO Richard Teng confirmed in a commentary to Axios that Zhao has actually received a lifetime ban from day-to-day management. However, he clarified that Zhao still retains all shareholder rights, including the ability to nominate board members and replace executives.

Despite his legal troubles and paying billions of dollars in fines, Zhao remains one of the richest people in 2024. On Forbes updated billionaire list, Zhao holds the number 25 spot in the overall rankings with a net worth of $60.6 billion.

He is currently the number one wealthiest person out of the 17 people from the cryptocurrency industry featured on the list.

The SEC has charged Mango DAO and Blockworks Foundation with the unregistered sale of ‘MNGO’ tokens and unregistered broker activity related to the Mango Markets platform.

According to the SEC, Mango DAO, a decentralized autonomous organization, and Blockworks Foundation, a Panama-based entity, raised more than $70 million from the sale of MNGO tokens starting in August 2021. The SEC alleged that these entities bypassed protections meant to safeguard investors by avoiding federal registration rules.

All charged parties settled the charges, agreeing to destroy their tokens and pay a fine.

The MNGO tokens served as governance tokens, allowing holders to have a say in how Mango Markets operates. Mango Markets is a crypto trading platform where users can trade digital assets.

Mango Markets recently allocated $250,000 in USD Coin (USDC) to address U.S. regulatory scrutiny, following a series of regulatory challenges, including a 2022 Avraham Eisenberg hack that resulted in $116 million in losses. 

Crypto lawyer Bill Hughes suggested on X that Eisenberg’s Mango Market hack and subsequent conviction threw more scrutiny on the entire project, eventually culminating in settled SEC charges and a monetary fine.

Unregistered brokers

The SEC also charged Blockworks Foundation and Mango Labs LLC with acting as unregistered brokers, alleging that they recruited users to trade on Mango Markets and provided advice and valuations on investment opportunities.

According to the SEC, this activity meant that the entities were operating as brokers without the necessary regulatory registration.

Similarly, on Sept. 18, the SEC charged Rari Capital and its co-founders for acting as unregistered brokers. They allegedly conducted unregistered securities offerings through investment products holding over $1 billion in crypto assets.

For context, the SEC requires entities offering securities, such as stocks or tokens with investment features, to register with them to ensure investor protections. This includes adhering to strict disclosure rules and other regulations.

Mango Markets destroying tokens

Mango DAO, Blockworks Foundation, and Mango Labs agreed to settle the SEC charges without admitting or denying the allegations. 

All charged parties agreed to pay nearly $700,000 in penalties, destroy their MNGO tokens, and request that these tokens be removed from trading platforms. They also agreed not to solicit trading of MNGO tokens in the future.

Crypto-related scams and fraud surged last year, with losses skyrocketing 45% in 2023 compared to the previous year, according to a new FBI report.

As crypto gains popularity in the United States, it also brings a rise in crypto scams. According to an FBI report released Sept. 9, the total losses to these scams exceeded $5.6 billion in 2023.

In 2023, the FBI Internet Crime Complaint Center received more than 69,000 complaints from the public regarding financial fraud involving cryptocurrencies, like Bitcoin (BTC), Ethereum (ETH), or Tether (USDT).

Investment scams were the most costly, accounting for 71% of the total losses, or about $3.96 billion. Call center fraud and government impersonation scams followed, contributing to 10% of the losses.

The most vulnerable demographic appears to be individuals over 60, who reported the highest number of complaints. According to the FBI, their collective losses surpassed $1.6 billion.

Different types of crypto scams 

Scammers often establish trust through dating apps or social media before luring victims into fraudulent cryptocurrency investments. Some of the scams highlighted by the FBI include investment scams, lottery scams, romance scams, credit card fraud, extortion, and ransomware.

Some of these scams like romance scams, often dubbed as pig butchering scams, involve fraudsters befriending victims under the pretense of a potential love interest. 

Victims may be allowed to withdraw small sums to build credibility, but they eventually find themselves duped into larger losses. In some cases, fraudulent recovery services that promise to retrieve their stolen funds further exploit the victims.

The FBI urged the public to exercise extreme caution when approached with investment opportunities by individuals they have only met online, emphasizing that anyone can be a target.