TLDR
- Freedom of Money says CZ stayed in the U.S. from November 2023 to September 2024.
- CZ admitted a Bank Secrecy Act violation and agreed to pay a $150 million fine.
- Binance agreed to pay $4.3 billion and accept three years of independent monitoring.
- A judge sentenced CZ to four months and ordered no post-release supervision.
- The memoir says an ICE hold added 14 detention days after prison and halfway house time.
Changpeng Zhao voluntarily entered the United States in November 2023 and expected a short court process. In “Freedom of Money,” he says that trip became months of waiting, prison, detention, and release. The book is a memoir, so it reflects his own account and not a full court record.
Plea deal turned a short trip into a long U.S. stay
The story began during Binance talks with the U.S. Department of Justice in 2023. By November, CZ had admitted a Bank Secrecy Act violation and accepted a $150 million fine. Binance also agreed to pay $4.3 billion and accept three years of monitoring.
He had hoped to return to the UAE after pleading guilty in Seattle. Instead, U.S. prosecutors required him to remain in the country before sentencing. On November 21, 2023, he pleaded guilty and stepped down as Binance CEO.
A district judge first said he could return to the UAE on bail. The Justice Department appealed, and a higher court ordered him to stay in the U.S. Sentencing moved from February to April 30, 2024.
Prosecutors sought three years in prison. The judge rejected unsupported claims about “money laundering” and “terrorist financing.” He then gave CZ four months and no post-release supervision.
Freedom of Money describes daily life inside Lompoc II
CZ reported to Lompoc II federal prison on May 30, 2024, with his sister and mother. After he got out, staff told his family to leave at once. Inside, he went through a strip search, changed clothes, and entered a 200-man unit.
He says he went six hours without water on the first day. That night, he sat on a steel bed with a thin, worn mattress. He also could not contact his family, while toilets flushed through the night.
The memoir says food was basic, and protein, fruit, and vegetables were scarce. Commissary access often failed, and two hundred inmates shared six phones and four terminals. He wrote early drafts in fifteen-minute sessions, and staff later marked him for close monitoring.
He also describes the prison as old and moldy. Within days, he says he developed a sore throat and fever. Even then, he kept a low profile and avoided conflict.
Visits, halfway house stay, and a final detention
Family visits became one of the few steady parts of his routine. Friends struggled with prison approval, and some requests were never processed. A counselor later told him, “You’re leaving anyway, so there’s no need to process these now, right?”
His mother was turned away once because her passport lacked an entry stamp. His sister later brought a government entry record, and staff then allowed the visit. He wrote that he ran to the visiting room when guards called his name.
On August 13, 2024, he left prison for a halfway house. He says the move restored internet access, phone calls, and daily structure. After 76 days without it, he wrote that copy and paste felt new again.
His final home confinement plan collapsed on September 13 after an ICE hold. He spent his last fourteen days in detention, even after ICE withdrew the hold. When he left the U.S. and reached the UAE, he linked freedom with “happiness.”
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