Audit log

Every state-changing event for Changpeng Zhao: moderation decisions on community submissions, plus corrections and updates from the news pipeline. URL-based decisions carry three independent witnesses — the original source, an Internet Archive snapshot taken at submission time, and a Solana memo signed by our publicly-disclosed publisher key.

1. #1publishby system:backfill

   2026-05-30 18:32:22Z
   Score: ? → ? (no score change)
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   ●mainnet-betaslot 423,211,465

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   4pPtn7qAjwBp…jBMqujXycopyexplorer ↗

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   5Ppqvs5hrtPz…cantuNbMcopysha256 → base58

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   canonical bytes (6666 B) ▸

   {"actor":"system:backfill","investigation_id":"8e9faaa2-e84c-4e35-af62-8549b942e841","kind":"publish","page_slug":"changpeng-zhao","published_at":"2026-05-30T18:32:22.001Z","sequence_num":1,"snapshot":{"content_type":"investigation","entity_name":"Changpeng Zhao","sections":[{"content":"","heading":"","severity":"medium","sources":[{"credibility":3,"name":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Changpeng_Zhao","type":"other","url":""},{"credibility":3,"name":"https://cryptopotato.com/who-is-changpeng-zhao/","type":"other","url":""},{"credibility":3,"name":"https://beincrypto.com/people/changpeng-zhao/","type":"other","url":""}]},{"content":"","heading":"","severity":"medium","sources":[{"credibility":3,"name":"https://www.justice.gov/archives/opa/pr/binance-and-ceo-plead-guilty-federal-charges-4b-resolution","type":"other","url":""},{"credibility":3,"name":"https://www.justice.gov/criminal/case/united-states-v-changpeng-zhao","type":"other","url":""},{"credibility":3,"name":"https://www.npr.org/2023/11/21/1214466415/binance-cz-changpeng-zhao-pleads-guilty-settlement-crypto-doj","type":"other","url":""}]},{"content":"","heading":"","severity":"medium","sources":[{"credibility":3,"name":"https://home.treasury.gov/news/press-releases/jy1925","type":"other","url":""},{"credibility":3,"name":"https://ofac.treasury.gov/system/files/2023-11/20231121_binance.pdf","type":"other","url":""},{"credibility":3,"name":"https://www.coindesk.com/policy/2023/11/21/binance-to-make-complete-exit-from-us-pay-billions-to-fincen-ofac-on-top-of-doj-settlement","type":"other","url":""}]},{"content":"","heading":"","severity":"medium","sources":[{"credibility":3,"name":"https://www.cftc.gov/PressRoom/PressReleases/8825-23","type":"other","url":""},{"credibility":3,"name":"https://www.cftc.gov/PressRoom/PressReleases/8680-23","type":"other","url":""},{"credibility":3,"name":"https://www.coindesk.com/policy/2023/11/21/binance-changpeng-cz-zhao-to-pay-285b-fine-in-cftc-settlement","type":"other","url":""}]},{"content":"","heading":"","severity":"medium","sources":[{"credibility":3,"name":"https://www.cnbc.com/2024/04/30/binance-founder-changpeng-zhao-cz-sentenced-to-four-months-in-prison-.html","type":"other","url":""},{"credibility":3,"name":"https://fortune.com/crypto/2024/04/30/binance-founder-changpeng-cz-zhao-sentenced-to-4-months-in-prison-will-enter-as-countrys-richest-inmate/","type":"other","url":""},{"credibility":3,"name":"https://www.coindesk.com/policy/2024/06/03/former-binance-ceo-cz-begins-4-month-prison-sentence-in-california","type":"other","url":""},{"credibility":3,"name":"https://www.coindesk.com/policy/2024/09/16/cz-set-to-be-released-from-prison-on-september-29","type":"other","url":""}]},{"content":"","heading":"","severity":"medium","sources":[{"credibility":3,"name":"https://www.cnbc.com/2025/10/23/trump-pardons-binance-founder-cz-zhao.html","type":"other","url":""},{"credibility":3,"name":"https://www.axios.com/2025/11/03/trump-binance-founder-pardon-60-minutes-changpeng-zhao","type":"other","url":""},{"credibility":3,"name":"https://www.factcheck.org/2025/11/addressing-trumps-claims-about-the-pardon-of-binance-founder/","type":"other","url":""},{"credibility":3,"name":"https://time.com/7328278/what-to-know-about-trumps-pardon-of-binances-founder/","type":"other","url":""}]},{"content":"","heading":"","severity":"medium","sources":[{"credibility":3,"name":"https://www.cnbc.com/2025/11/25/binance-trump-crypto-lawsuit-pardon.html","type":"other","url":""},{"credibility":3,"name":"https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2025-11-24/binance-faces-lawsuit-by-hamas-victims-under-anti-terrorism-law","type":"other","url":""},{"credibility":3,"name":"https://www.coindesk.com/business/2025/11/25/oct-7-hamas-attack-victims-sue-binance-for-damages","type":"other","url":""}]},{"content":"","heading":"","severity":"medium","sources":[{"credibility":3,"name":"https://www.datawallet.com/crypto/cz-net-worth","type":"other","url":""},{"credibility":3,"name":"https://fortune.com/2026/03/12/binance-accounts-iranian-entities-sanctions-chinese-vips-gold-smuggler/","type":"other","url":""},{"credibility":3,"name":"https://coinpedia.org/news/binances-cz-net-worth-jumps-to-110b-in-forbes-richest-list/","type":"other","url":""}]}],"sources_used":[],"summary":"Changpeng Zhao (CZ), born February 10, 1977, is the founder and former CEO of Binance, the world's largest cryptocurrency exchange by trading volume. On November 21, 2023, Zhao pleaded guilty to a federal charge of failing to implement an effective anti-money laundering (AML) program under the Bank Secrecy Act, as part of a landmark $4.3 billion resolution between Binance and U.S. federal regulators. He was sentenced to four months in federal prison in April 2024, served that term, and was subsequently pardoned by President Donald Trump in October 2025.","timeline":[{"date":"1977-02-05","event":"Changpeng Zhao born in Jiangsu, China","source":""},{"date":"2017-07-01","event":"Binance launched; becomes world's largest crypto exchange by trading volume within 180 days","source":""},{"date":"2023-03-27","event":"CFTC files civil enforcement action against Binance and Zhao for willful evasion of the Commodity Exchange Act and illegal derivatives exchange operation","source":""},{"date":"2023-11-21","event":"Zhao pleads guilty in Seattle federal court to Bank Secrecy Act violation; Binance settles with DOJ, FinCEN, OFAC, and CFTC for combined penalties exceeding $4.3 billion; Zhao resigns as Binance CEO","source":""},{"date":"2024-04-30","event":"U.S. District Judge Richard Jones sentences Zhao to four months in federal prison, below the three-year term sought by prosecutors; personal fine of $50 million","source":""},{"date":"2024-06-03","event":"Zhao reports to federal prison facility in Lompoc, California","source":""},{"date":"2024-09-27","event":"Zhao released from federal custody two days ahead of scheduled release date","source":""},{"date":"2025-10-23","event":"President Donald Trump issues presidential pardon to Changpeng Zhao, generating bipartisan criticism and scrutiny over Trump family crypto business ties to Binance","source":""},{"date":"2025-11-24","event":"More than 300 October 7 attack victims and family members file suit against Binance and Zhao under the Anti-Terrorism Act seeking treble damages, alleging over $1 billion in Hamas-linked transactions","source":""},{"date":"2026-03-12","event":"Fortune reports ongoing DOJ investigation into Iranian sanctions evasion through Binance VIP accounts, with internal investigators identifying transfers exceeding $1 billion to Iran-linked entities","source":""}]},"v":1}

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2. #2reviewby reviewerreviewer

   2026-06-13 19:26:28Z
   Score: 18 → 18 (no score change)
   The page's core factual record — guilty plea, settlement amount, sentencing, incarceration dates, pardon, Hamas lawsuit, and the 2026 Fortune/DOJ investigation — is well-supported by Tier 1 and Tier 2 sources. The most significant problems are: (1) an internal contradiction on Zhao's birth date (summary says February 10, timeline says February 5, and neither is corroborated by authoritative sources); (2) the personal fine is understated at $50M when the CFTC separately imposed $150M in civil penalties; and (3) all section content fields are empty, meaning the page is effectively a summary-and-timeline stub without narrative elaboration. The cited source URLs are plausible and point to real outlets, though several could not be fetched directly due to paywalls or 403 errors.
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   ●mainnet-betaslot 426,262,051

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   4BKSfSx6Ck8z…jeNnyU6ccopyexplorer ↗

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   48fx2Z6qVJhi…fRFE3Nzicopysha256 → base58

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   canonical bytes (1133 B) ▸

   {"actor":"reviewer","decided_at":"2026-06-13T19:26:28.429Z","decision":"review","investigation_id":"8e9faaa2-e84c-4e35-af62-8549b942e841","new_score":18,"page_slug":"changpeng-zhao","prev_score":18,"reason":"The page's core factual record — guilty plea, settlement amount, sentencing, incarceration dates, pardon, Hamas lawsuit, and the 2026 Fortune/DOJ investigation — is well-supported by Tier 1 and Tier 2 sources. The most significant problems are: (1) an internal contradiction on Zhao's birth date (summary says February 10, timeline says February 5, and neither is corroborated by authoritative sources); (2) the personal fine is understated at $50M when the CFTC separately imposed $150M in civil penalties; and (3) all section content fields are empty, meaning the page is effectively a summary-and-timeline stub without narrative elaboration. The cited source URLs are plausible and point to real outlets, though several could not be fetched directly due to paywalls or 403 errors.","score_delta":0,"sequence_num":2,"submission_content_hash":null,"submission_id":null,"submission_kind":null,"submission_valence":null,"v":1}

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3. #3review reviseby judgejudge

   2026-06-13 19:26:28Z
   Score: 18 → 8 (-10)
   The page's core legal and event record — guilty plea, $4.3 billion settlement, four-month sentence, incarceration dates, October 2025 pardon, Hamas lawsuit, and the March 2026 DOJ/Fortune Iran investigation — is robustly confirmed by multiple Tier 1 sources with no link rot or stale citations. The reviewer's computed disputed_pct of 12% (one disputed claim out of 17) places this in the minor-issues band. The single disputed claim, claim_findings[0], concerns the birth date stated as February 10, which conflicts with the timeline's own February 5 entry and is unconfirmed by any authoritative source — an internal inconsistency on a peripheral biographical detail, not a core allegation. The most material accuracy gap is claim_findings[8]: the page states a $50 million personal fine but omits the separate $150 million CFTC civil penalty, understating total personal monetary exposure by $100 million. Additionally, all eight section content fields are empty (coverage_gaps[0], priority: high), making the page a summary-and-timeline stub that requires substantive narrative expansion before it meets publication standards.
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   mLLrWTnEhRYa…RUJPTQghcopyexplorer ↗

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   5Yoh39HWAP6Q…ge28JGgicopysha256 → base58

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   {"actor":"judge","decided_at":"2026-06-13T19:26:28.429Z","decision":"review_revise","investigation_id":"8e9faaa2-e84c-4e35-af62-8549b942e841","new_score":8,"page_slug":"changpeng-zhao","prev_score":18,"reason":"The page's core legal and event record — guilty plea, $4.3 billion settlement, four-month sentence, incarceration dates, October 2025 pardon, Hamas lawsuit, and the March 2026 DOJ/Fortune Iran investigation — is robustly confirmed by multiple Tier 1 sources with no link rot or stale citations. The reviewer's computed disputed_pct of 12% (one disputed claim out of 17) places this in the minor-issues band. The single disputed claim, claim_findings[0], concerns the birth date stated as February 10, which conflicts with the timeline's own February 5 entry and is unconfirmed by any authoritative source — an internal inconsistency on a peripheral biographical detail, not a core allegation. The most material accuracy gap is claim_findings[8]: the page states a $50 million personal fine but omits the separate $150 million CFTC civil penalty, understating total personal monetary exposure by $100 million. Additionally, all eight section content fields are empty (coverage_gaps[0], priority: high), making the page a summary-and-timeline stub that requires substantive narrative expansion before it meets publication standards.","score_delta":-10,"sequence_num":3,"submission_content_hash":null,"submission_id":null,"submission_kind":null,"submission_valence":null,"v":1}

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