Post-prison CZ says time behind bars didn't hurt the billionaire's business after Binance

How does a high-profile crypto founder recover his reputation after serving prison time? Changpeng "CZ" Zhao's answer: He doesn't have to.

The founder of the Binance crypto exchange represents the rarest of statistics — a billionaire who has been imprisoned, and the only person to ever serve time solely for Bank Secrecy Act violations. But he said that he's never lost a prospective business partner because of his guilty plea.

"Once we can explain, 'Look, this is the Bank Secrecy Act, this is the violation; there's no fraud.' Many people confuse that, right?" he told CoinDesk in an interview. "But once they understand … they actually trust you more."

CZ, 49, is looking now toward his post-prison, post-CEO working life, and the millions of crypto fans he'd cultivated are keenly interested in his next steps. They might be disappointed in the short term, though, because he insists he doesn't want to return to Binance at this stage and has no interest in running its separate U.S. operation. That leaves him as a pure investor and adviser, searching for startup adventures.

The 17th richest person in the world, according to the Forbes billionaires tally, said he has little interest in making money for the sake of money. As the Canadian minds the slower-paced operation of his investment interests and keeps close tabs on the bulk of his wealth at Binance, his forward motion is colored by his complex relationship with the U.S., where so much of the crypto sector's energy is focused.

He said he's learned from his earlier compliance missteps and doesn't hold any grudges for his U.S. prison experience. But there's no doubt it blew up the crypto giant's earlier trajectory.

The blind spot

The trouble started years ago, when the younger digital assets entrepreneur started Binance, and its instant growth catapulted it into position as the leading global platform. He said he had little idea how to manage the legal side of his business, and he had a fatal blind spot about U.S. money-laundering and sanctions rules.

"I should have spent more time to learn about it much earlier on, but I was not living in the U.S. We started this platform in Shanghai, and then we moved to Malta, Singapore, etc.," he said. "So I didn't realize at the time that U.S. laws actually apply globally."

"I don't hold grudges or anything, right? I just want to help to grow crypto anywhere in the world, and to do that, we need to help grow crypto in America."

The Canadian national said he won't participate at any level in U.S. politics, despite his industry's growing reputation for political campaigning and influence. But he supports the U.S. aim to be the world's crypto capital, and he sat for the interview during a trip to Washington.

In the meantime, he's focused on the early backing of "highly impactful companies that may not be highly profitable companies." So far, his criminal-justice experience hasn't been a drag on those relationships.

"I had guys who apologized to me that they had a misunderstanding before," CZ recalled. "They said, 'Well, I thought there was some financial fraud.'"

If anything, he said, it's been helpful.

"Sometimes it actually works as a plus," he said. "It kind of builds your character that you went through this really difficult time and this unfair time, and you were tested and you were scrutinized, but they didn't find any real issues, really. Well, there was the violation of the BSA, which I do not dispute, but there's no fraud."

While he hasn't entirely dismissed a dramatic reappearance at Binance one day, he said the CEO life doesn't appeal to him as much now.

"Being a CEO is a very, very time-consuming, very tough kind of job," he said. "I'm kind of taking a breather. I kind of enjoy that, and also I think my best contribution is really helping other founders to build.

CZ said he still has time to figure out his future.

"I'm not young, but I'm not super old, so at this age I can still do a lot of stuff," he said. "I still have energy."

Read More: CZ, Binance founder, wants to clear up 'misunderstandings' about who he is