After his pardon, Binance’s founder hired a new Washington team, and Binance kept paying for “executive relief”

By Staff Reporter

WASHINGTON — A year after President Trump pardoned Changpeng Zhao, the founder of the cryptocurrency exchange Binance, the company is paying its Washington lobbyist more than ever to work on what the disclosure forms call “executive relief.”

Checkmate Government Relations reported $750,000 in income from Binance Holdings for the third quarter, according to a report posted Oct. 18. That matches the $750,000 it reported for the spring and is up from $450,000 in each of the three quarters before that. The issue description has not changed since the firm registered in September 2025: “Financial services policy issues relating to digital assets and cryptocurrency; and executive relief.” Checkmate has now reported $2.85 million from Binance.

Zhao has also hired lobbyists of his own since the pardon. Three firms registered this summer to represent him personally: Simpson Thacher & Bartlett, with a former associate deputy attorney general; Morpheus Strategies, with a former senior Treasury adviser on terrorist financing; and Tiger Hill Partners, with a former staff director of Senate Banking subcommittees. Their filings were all posted Aug. 28.

Together, the filings show a lobbying operation that grew after the clemency it was hired to pursue. Binance and Zhao have reported $3.7 million in federal lobbying since the start of 2025, by a Washington Inquisitor tally of Senate disclosure records, and the $2.29 million reported in the first nine months of 2026 alone is nearly triple what Binance’s lobbyists reported for all of 2023, the year it pleaded guilty. The records don’t say what relief is still being sought, and the law doesn’t require them to.

What the forms say

The Lobbying Disclosure Act requires registrants to list the general issues they lobby on, the specific issues and the houses of Congress and agencies they contacted. It doesn’t require them to say what they asked for. “Executive relief” is not a defined term in the law; it first appears in Binance-related filings in early 2025.

BakerHostetler registered to lobby for Zhao on Feb. 10, 2025, listing a single issue, “Executive relief,” and one lobbyist, Teresa Goody Guillén, a former Securities and Exchange Commission lawyer. Politico reported that Zhao hired her to work exclusively on his pardon. The firm separately registered for Binance Holdings on the same date, and its reports for the company listed “Executive relief” with the Executive Office of the President alongside digital-asset policy.

Checkmate’s registration took effect Sept. 20, 2025, and names one lobbyist, the firm’s founder, Charles “Ches” McDowell. NBC News described McDowell as a friend of Donald Trump Jr. Checkmate’s first quarterly report listed contacts with the White House and the Treasury Department. Trump’s pardon of Zhao was announced Oct. 23, 2025.

After the pardon, the two firms’ filings diverged. BakerHostetler’s first-quarter 2026 report for Zhao changed the issue from “Executive relief” to “Administrative guidance” and listed the Justice Department; its report for Binance that quarter dropped the phrase in favor of “regulatory guidance,” with contacts at Justice and Treasury. The firm then terminated both registrations, effective April 23, 2026. Checkmate’s reports kept the “executive relief” language for all four quarters after the pardon. Its fourth-quarter report was amended in January from $250,000 to $450,000.

Checkmate’s newest report differs from its earlier ones in one respect. Its reports from the third quarter of 2025 through the second quarter of 2026 each listed the White House Office and the Treasury Department as entities contacted. The third-quarter 2026 report lists none. The report doesn’t say why.

Zhao’s new team

The three firms that signed up Zhao this summer describe their work in general terms. None of their reports lists an executive-branch agency contact; only Morpheus’s latest report lists any contacts, with the House and Senate.

Simpson Thacher & Bartlett registered effective June 11 to advise “regarding public policy matters affecting the client, including engagement with the U.S. Congress and Executive Branch.” Its lobbyists are Raphael Prober, who lists a former post as associate deputy attorney general from 2015 to 2016, and Hayley Booker. It reported $10,000 for the second quarter and $10,000 for the third.

Morpheus Strategies registered with the same effective date to advise Zhao on “legal, government relations, and public policy matters affecting the client and his business activities, particularly with respect to U.S. Government and Regulatory Agencies.” Its lead lobbyist, Alexander Cabranes, lists past roles as a senior policy adviser in Treasury’s Office of Terrorist Financing and Financial Crimes and as a Justice Department attorney. Its third-quarter report shows $10,000 and contacts with the House and Senate on “issues related to digital assets and services and the application of existing law.”

Tiger Hill Partners registered effective July 16 to advise “on requirements and regulatory structures as they relate to digital assets.” Its lobbyist, Milan Dalal, lists past jobs as staff director of two Senate Banking subcommittees and as a senior economic adviser to Sen. Mark Warner (D-Va.). Tiger Hill reported $120,000 for the third quarter.

Morpheus also appears on the U.S. side. When Woden Strategies registered this spring to lobby for BAM Trading Services, the operator of Binance.US, it listed Morpheus as an affiliated organization and Zhao as a foreign entity, with an address in the Cayman Islands and a principal place of business in Abu Dhabi. Gary DeWaal’s GD Mountain Insights, which had lobbied for Binance.US since March 2025, terminated its registration effective Sept. 30.

The full ledger

The table below counts income reported by every registrant whose filings name Binance, Binance.US, Binance’s Seychelles affiliate Nest Services or Zhao as the client, from January 2025 through September 2026. It uses the latest version of each report.

For comparison, Binance Holdings’ lobbyists reported $850,000 in 2023, when Hogan Lovells, Ice Miller and Gibson Dunn represented the company, and no income in 2024. Checkmate’s $750,000 third-quarter fee is one of the larger single-client totals at a firm that reported $13.03 million in third-quarter lobbying income, as the Inquisitor reported Wednesday.

What Binance still has before the government

Zhao’s pardon did not undo Binance’s corporate guilty plea. In November 2023, the company admitted to anti-money-laundering and sanctions violations and agreed to pay about $4.3 billion, Reuters reported, and it accepted an independent compliance monitor, according to Bloomberg. Binance executives asked Treasury officials in 2025 to remove or shorten the monitorship, according to The Wall Street Journal, and Bloomberg reported in September 2025 that Binance was nearing a deal with the Justice Department to end its monitor early. The Inquisitor could not find any public announcement that the monitorship has ended.

This year, government scrutiny has increased. Treasury sent Binance an April 19 letter asking for employee interviews and records to look into potential sanctions violations, Bloomberg reported in May; Binance said it was “committed to cooperating with the independent monitor.” In September, federal prosecutors in Manhattan sought forfeiture of $61 million they said came from Iranian black-market oil sales and was laundered through Binance, and the head of the Justice Department’s Criminal Division, Tysen Duva, said this month that officials were reviewing Binance’s compliance with its 2023 agreement, Bloomberg reported. Duva did not say Binance had violated it. Binance said in a statement that it is “fully committed to cooperating with law enforcement.” Neither the company nor its employees have been charged in that inquiry.

Congressional Democrats have sent letters to Zhao and other clemency recipients asking how their pardons came about, CBS News reported. White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said that anyone “spending money to lobby for pardons is foolishly wasting their money” and that the administration has a “robust pardon review process.” Goody Guillén has said there was no quid pro quo, CBS reported.

What the filings can’t show

Lobbying reports disclose income, issues and the agencies or chambers contacted. They don’t name the officials lobbied, describe what was requested or say whether any request was granted. Reports also round income to the nearest $10,000. The tally above relies on the client names on file; any lobbying for Binance reported under another name would not be counted. A registrant’s description of an issue as “executive relief” doesn’t by itself establish what action, if any, the client is seeking from the executive branch.

A Binance spokesperson, speaking on background, said the company is not lobbying for any executive relief, has had no contract with Checkmate in 2026 and has made no payments to Checkmate in 2026. The spokesperson said the disclosure “appears to be an error” and referred questions to Checkmate.

As of Thursday afternoon, Checkmate’s reports for the first three quarters of 2026, filed April 17, July 16 and Oct. 18 and listing Binance as the client, had not been amended or terminated, according to the Senate’s lobbying disclosure database. They report income of $450,000, $750,000 and $750,000. Checkmate did not respond to a request for comment.

The Inquisitor sent questions on Thursday morning to Checkmate Government Relations, Binance, BakerHostetler, Simpson Thacher & Bartlett, Morpheus Strategies, Tiger Hill Partners, the Justice Department and the office of Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.), who opened an inquiry into Binance in February, including what “executive relief” refers to now and why Checkmate’s latest report lists no agency contacts. Binance responded on background before publication, as described above. The others had not responded by publication time. This story will be updated with any other responses.

Correction, Oct. 22, 2026: An earlier version of this story said none of those asked had responded by publication time. Binance had responded on background before publication; its response has been added.

Image: The first page of the pardon warrant for Changpeng Zhao. U.S. Department of Justice / Wikimedia Commons, public domain.

Method: We searched the Senate’s Lobbying Disclosure Act database for every filing naming Binance, BAM Trading, Nest Services or Changpeng Zhao as client, through early Oct. 22, 2026, and used the most recent version of each quarterly report.