‘This Is Corruption’: ’60 Minutes’ Reports Trump Pardoned Binance Boss After He ‘Enriched’ Crypto Business Tied to Trump Family

60 Minutes reported President Donald Trump pardoned Changpeng Zhao, the founder and former boss of the Binance cryptocurrency exchange, after Zhao “enriched” the Trump family by helping with its push into crypto.

The Sunday segment was led by correspondent Scott Pelley. 

“Our reporting shows that Zhao’s company supported a Trump family firm at critical moments leading up to the president’s pardon” in October 2025, Pelley said at the top of the show. Zhao served four months in prison on anti-money laundering charges and was released in September 2024.

He then interviewed Elizabeth Oyer, a former Pardon Attorney at the Justice Department who was appointed by then-President Joe Biden in 2022; Pelley noted she was replaced earlier this year by a “Trump loyalist,” before asking her whether the president’s pardon of Zhao was “unusual.”

“The influence that money played in securing this pardon is unprecedented,” Oyer said. “The self-dealing aspect of the pardon, in terms of the benefit that it conferred on President Trump and his family and people in his inner circle, is also unprecedented.”

Zhao, Pelley said his sources told him, “donated software” to World Liberty Financial —  a crypto company closely tied to two of the president’s sons, Eric Trump and Donald Trump Jr. —  to help the Trump family launch a cryptocurrency. “The next month, Changpeng Zhao applied for a presidential pardon,” Pelley added.

Reuters recently reported the Eric Trump and Donald Trump Jr. “raked in more than $800 million from sales of crypto assets” in the first half of 2025. Pelley mentioned a fund from the United Arab Emirates put $2 billion into Binance earlier this year, and they did it, out “of all the currencies in the world,” with World Liberty crypto. One unnamed source, Pelley said, said it was “nuts” to do so.

Lawrence Lessig, a Harvard Law professor, then told Pelley, “The only reason it makes sense is to ingratiate with the president.”

“Are you saying the president is compromised?” Pelley asked Lessig.

“‘Compromised’ is exactly the description, because we can’t know what’s the actual reason for the decisions that the administration is making,” Lessig said. “Are the reasons helping America? or are the reasons helping America and also helping them privately?”

The Emiratis told 60 Minutes they did the deal because of its “business suitability.”

Sunday’s segment stands out, considering President Trump recently had his first interview with 60 Minutes after settling his lawsuit against the program and CBS. And Pelley, during a graduation speech at Wake Forest University in May, warned “freedom of speech is under attack” and “insidious fear” had gripped society during the early months of the second Trump Administration.

You can watch part of his feature above, via CBS.