Valuetainment - May 14, 2026


＂They Wanted To Protect SBF＂ - The $100M Democrat Payoff That Protected SBF & DESTROYED CZ

Topics
pardon's impact
Hosted by
Patrick Bet-David
Mentioned
Newsom Merrick Garland Andrew Ross Sorkin James Bond Tuscaneiro Binance Trump
＂Three Times BIGGER Than Manhattan＂ - MEGA AI Data Center Sparks Tech War With Americans ＂China Is The ENEMY＂ - Ken Paxton DEFENDS Texas' AI Data Center EXPLOSION

Episode Stats


Length

9 minutes

Words per minute

193.97

Word count

1,751

Sentence count

141

Harmful content

Hate speech

1

sentences flagged


Summary

Summaries generated with gmurro/bart-large-finetuned-filtered-spotify-podcast-summ .

In this episode, Ronster chats with Nir Eyal, CEO of Binance, about his recent pardon from the U.S. Federal Penitentiary in San Francisco, and what it means for the future of the company.

Transcript

Transcript generated with Whisper (turbo).
Hate speech classifications generated with facebook/roberta-hate-speech-dynabench-r4-target .
Topics generated with Qwen2.5-3B-Instruct.
Hosts, guests, and mentioned names generated with spaCy (en_core_web_sm), reconciled against Wikidata.
00:00:00 To get the context of dates right, so when do you go away?
00:00:03 When do you get the pardon?
00:00:05 So I arrived in the U.S. November 21st, 2023,
00:00:11 and then I was supposed to be sentenced going through the court.
00:00:14 I was sentenced on April 30th, 2024.
00:00:18 I went to, I think I self-surrendered to prison on May 30th, 2024.
00:00:25 I got out of prison on September 27th, 2024,
00:00:30 So, I did four months there.
00:00:32 And then I think in October 21st, 2025, I got the presidential pardon.
00:00:38 So, yeah.
00:00:39 So, a year later.
00:00:40 A year later.
00:00:41 But what is the big deal about getting a pardon, though, a year later?
00:00:44 Like, what does it do?
00:00:44 What benefit?
00:00:45 You're not a U.S. citizen. 1.00
00:00:46 You don't live here.
00:00:47 Who cares about getting a pardon?
00:00:49 Why was that such a big deal?
00:00:50 It's a big deal.
00:00:51 It's a big deal.
00:00:52 Without a pardon, I'm labeled as a felon.
00:00:54 So, I have a criminal record, right?
00:00:56 And then, especially in my industry, where we deal with finances,
00:01:00 we have to get financial licenses,
00:01:02 my ability to what they call the fit and proper as a UBO,
00:01:05 ultimate beneficiary owner, is significantly impacted.
00:01:09 That means I cannot be a shareholder of many of our businesses.
00:01:14 Or we will limit our ability to get licenses.
00:01:17 This is not just in the U.S.
00:01:18 This is global.
00:01:19 And in the U.S. even more.
00:01:21 After the pardon, this goes away.
00:01:24 It's a full, unconditional pardon.
00:01:27 And yeah, so the pardon is the big deal.
00:01:30 With a pardon, we don't get the fines back,
00:01:33 but still it's a big deal that we get our name cleared.
00:01:37 Got it.
00:01:37 So it helps you out for licensing
00:01:39 and the way U.S. qualifies you,
00:01:43 the rest of the world will pay attention to it.
00:01:44 So it kind of opens the market up for you
00:01:46 that if you choose to get back into business, you can.
00:01:49 Yes, yes.
00:01:50 Okay, but you have to step down as the CEO of Binance.
00:01:54 Yes, when I step, yes, that's true.
00:01:58 What can you do?
00:02:00 What can you not do with Binance?
00:02:02 I actually have a legal opinion from my lawyers,
00:02:04 but basically, largely, my shareholder rights are intact.
00:02:09 But now, given the pardon, I believe I have a lot more freedom.
00:02:12 But I still don't run Binance.
00:02:16 And also, the company still have two monitors on them, etc.
00:02:21 So there's still some limitations.
00:02:23 But largely, nowadays, I actually don't really want to run Binance either.
00:02:30 After getting the pardon, could you now go back and be the CEO of Binance, or you couldn't do it legally?
00:02:37 I think there's still some restrictions around that.
00:02:39 Is it permanent, or is there a time on it?
00:02:43 I actually need to check with the lawyers.
00:02:46 Nothing is really permanent, in my opinion.
00:02:49 But I believe that there's still some restrictions today.
00:02:53 So in five years, would it be an impossible thing that we get news that says CZ makes a comeback and he's the CEO of Binance?
00:03:03 Is there a possibility that that could happen?
00:03:05 A very small possibility.
00:03:07 You don't have the itch to come back at all.
00:03:09 Even if I could, Binance has very strong leaders now.
00:03:12 They run the company much better than if I were to go back.
00:03:16 I view myself as more of a zero to one kind of guy, where from like one to a hundred, there are other people who are…
00:03:22 To say that, that's not easy to say.
00:03:23 Most people don't have the – that's why you're not an ego guy, though.
00:03:26 For you to be able to say that, the average guy can't say something like that.
00:03:29 I'm not a ego guy.
00:03:30 I'm a normal guy.
00:03:31 Like, I'm not – yeah.
00:03:32 You're not a normal guy.
00:03:33 But, you know, to say, you know, zero to one, you know, and you're not a 1-200.
00:03:38 Very few founders can say that.
00:03:41 I think it's my personality, right?
00:03:42 I like to create things, whereas running things, you know, you have to be structured.
00:03:46 You have a lot of – you know, there's a lot of structure, a lot of bureaucracy.
00:03:49 when i see like you know even even sometimes i hear about what's happening in binance and i
00:03:55 there's a bureaucracy that drive me nuts yeah yeah i can i can only imagine that but it's
00:04:00 probably got to be also a little bit uh relieved to not have to make any decisions you're free
00:04:07 they have to do it you're free you're doing your own thing and you know they're gonna have to run
00:04:11 the company and you still are majority shareholders so if the company goes to half a trillion
00:04:16 you're going to be benefiting from it.
00:04:18 So that's a good place to be.
00:04:19 So, okay.
00:04:20 So this happens.
00:04:22 You're off.
00:04:22 By the way, did you ever meet with the president?
00:04:24 Have you and the president ever met or no?
00:04:25 No.
00:04:26 I saw him in person in Davos where he was on stage
00:04:29 and I was in the audience.
00:04:31 We didn't say hi.
00:04:32 I didn't get it.
00:04:32 When year was this?
00:04:33 This is last year.
00:04:35 This is Davos last year.
00:04:36 Oh, this is Davos last year.
00:04:37 Yeah, yeah.
00:04:37 This year, actually.
00:04:38 It was in January, right?
00:04:39 This is the one where Newsom was standing on the side
00:04:41 and didn't let him give one of the talks.
00:04:43 Yes.
00:04:43 The controversy there.
00:04:44 Yes.
00:04:44 Did you see Newsom?
00:04:46 No, I didn't see Newsom.
00:04:47 Did any of the Democratic guys approach you and recognize you?
00:04:50 Did they come up to you?
00:04:52 No, at least they didn't come and talk to me.
00:04:55 I was only there for one day.
00:04:56 I was only there for like, no.
00:04:57 Did you speak or was it just a networking dinner conversations?
00:05:01 I was there for a dinner and I spoke on stage.
00:05:03 I was on a panel and then I had the Andrew Sorkins interview with CNBC.
00:05:09 So I did those three things.
00:05:10 I flew out.
00:05:11 Is this it?
00:05:12 this is a free man,
00:05:14 by an answer on the two,
00:05:14 no,
00:05:14 he was a,
00:05:15 yeah,
00:05:15 yeah,
00:05:15 yeah.
00:05:16 So it was,
00:05:16 this was outside.
00:05:17 So the sun,
00:05:18 the sun,
00:05:18 like my glasses look good on you,
00:05:20 buddy.
00:05:20 I got to tell you that you look good with those glasses.
00:05:22 It's the same glasses.
00:05:23 Is it except that one?
00:05:24 It's the same.
00:05:25 In the sun,
00:05:26 it turns darker.
00:05:26 Okay.
00:05:27 Well,
00:05:27 the dark look is a good look.
00:05:29 You got a,
00:05:29 you got a James Bond,
00:05:30 uh,
00:05:31 looking,
00:05:31 uh,
00:05:31 you know,
00:05:32 look going on there for you.
00:05:33 But by the way,
00:05:33 you want to play that Merrick Garland clip.
00:05:35 I just love the way he says it.
00:05:36 Like he is celebrating your fall,
00:05:42 finance has agreed to plead guilty to willfully violating the bank secrecy act knowingly failing
00:05:48 to register as a money transmitting business go to the part about the biggest fine the international
00:05:54 it was a seven second clip by this later billions of dollars no i wanted to get to the clip okay you
00:05:59 don't have the clip it's okay we don't have to show it so he's not a very much liked guy he did
00:06:05 a lot of weird things when he had power and he was one of those guys that wanted to use his power
00:06:10 to take down different guys.
00:06:13 And if you weren't willing to help them out
00:06:14 and you took their biggest stoner,
00:06:15 I wouldn't be surprised if he got a call from somebody
00:06:17 to say, let's target CZ.
00:06:19 Not saying the stuff that you guys did,
00:06:21 you know, probably didn't break a couple laws
00:06:25 that we have because of the transfers
00:06:27 that was taking place.
00:06:28 But still, you could tell they were interested
00:06:31 in targeting a guy like you.
00:06:32 Till the last minute, they wanted to protect SPF.
00:06:36 Sorry?
00:06:37 You were going to say something.
00:06:38 Yeah, no.
00:06:39 They even attacked President Trump.
00:06:40 right president trump got charges criminal charges for bringing a document to his bathroom
00:06:45 yeah no they tried it they try to they try to destroy uh the the president and and the good
00:06:54 thing about the market is like you said the constitution it's interesting for you to say
00:06:57 how powerful the constitution is to go from there to where it's at today relationship with trump is
00:07:02 there's a conversation about the fact that you help them with a technology that they have what
00:07:06 is the relationship with you and the family this basically no relationship um so um there's no
00:07:12 business relationships there's no commercial relations what is that company's name there's
00:07:16 a company name that they talk about something liberty right or world liberty finance yeah
00:07:20 what's the relationship with you and world liberty we don't have we don't have any nothing we don't
00:07:24 have any relationships um uh yeah i think they when they said so world liberty finance issues
00:07:30 a stablecoin called USD1 and USD1 is deployed on BNB Chain which is a public blockchain that
00:07:36 anyone can deploy a smart contract. The smart contract is open source and BNB Chain's developers
00:07:42 probably give them like a sample code which is you know pretty much publicly available so that's
00:07:49 probably what they were referring to making up a story saying and this is nothing to do with Binance
00:07:54 nothing to do with me personally so we don't have any stake in USD1 or World Liberty Finance
00:07:59 they don't have a stake in us um there were reports about you know there was a deal about
00:08:04 you know giving some equity of binance or binance us to get a partner there's no such transactions
00:08:08 they don't own any equity in any of those entities yeah that's a story that you'll see all over the
00:08:13 place the fact that hey there was this was a back deal you helped them out this was their way
00:08:18 in exchange for uh the pardon that you got etc etc when we set out to create a shoe that blends
00:08:25 comfort, function, and luxury. We had the choice to make it fast. We had the choice to make it
00:08:31 cheap. We chose neither. Instead, we chose Tuscaneiro. We chose true Italian craftsmanship,
00:08:39 each pair touched by 50 skilled hands. We chose patience, spending two years perfecting every
00:08:44 detail, and we chose the finest quality at every step. Introducing the Future Looks Bright
00:08:51 collection. Not rushed, not disposable, not ordinary. Rather intentional, luxurious, timeless.