Binance's billionaire founder, Changpeng Zhao, has officially begun life at a low-security federal prison in Lompoc, California.

Zhao was sentenced to four months in prison in April after pleading guilty to allowing money laundering at the world's largest cryptocurrency exchange.

The sentence for the former Binance executive was significantly shorter than the three years in prison that US prosecutors had proposed. The defense team asked for five months of probation. Sentencing guidelines prescribe a prison sentence of 12 to 18 months.

Zhao sincerely apologized at the sentencing hearing:

"I'm sorry. I believe that the first step to accepting responsibility is to be fully aware of your own mistakes. My mistake was not fully implementing the anti-money laundering program… I now realize the severity of that mistake.”

In November, Zhao reached an agreement with the US government to resolve a years-long investigation into Binance. As part of the agreement, Zhao stepped down as CEO of the company.

Although he no longer runs the company, Zhao is said to hold about 90% of the shares in Binance.

The scope of the former CEO's alleged crimes includes willfully failing to implement an effective anti-money laundering program as required by the Bank Secrecy Act and allowing Binance to process transactions involving the proceeds from illegal activity, including between Americans and individuals in sanctions jurisdictions.

The United States demanded that Binance pay a fine of $4.3 billion while Zhao personally agreed to pay a fine of $50 million.

Former FTX CEO Sam Bankman-Fried (SBF) is also serving time in federal prison. SBF was convicted of all seven counts against him in November and received a 25-year prison sentence in March. Bankman-Fried was also ordered to pay $11 billion in forfeitures at his sentencing in federal court Manhattan.

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