The billionaire founder of Binance is accused of funding terrorism.

Live from the UK, this is the Marketplace Morning Report from the BBC World Service.

I'm Guy Kilty. Good morning.

The founder of the world's largest cryptocurrency exchange, Binance, is being sued by victims of the Hamas attack on Israel in October 2023.

Last year, Changpong Zhao was jailed in the United States

after pleading guilty to money laundering,

but was pardoned by President Donald Trump.

The BBC's Nick Marsh has been following this from our business hub in Singapore.

Hi, Nick.

Hi there.

Just tell us who is suing Changpong Zhao and why.

He is being sued by the victims and the relatives of the victims of the October 7th attacks,

which were carried out by Hamas, which killed so many people, as we know, in Israel. They are

accusing Binance, and this is more than 300 American plaintiffs. This is a

US lawsuit. They're accusing Binance and Changpung Zhao of knowingly enabling groups such as

Hamas, but also groups like Hezbollah and Iran's Revolutionary Guard as well, of basically allowing them to move more than a billion dollars through its platform.

Now, Changpung Zhao pleaded guilty to money laundering a couple of years ago when Joe Biden was in the White House.

He served four months in jail last year.

This lawsuit, however, alleges that another $50 million

was funneled to Hamas using Binance after the October, the 7th attacks, and even after

Champung Jiao had pleaded guilty. So they are looking for big damages and a big compensation package relating to

these accusations. Do we know what the likely outcomes are then, then? Is it a question of damages

...