Did we consider Sam Bankman Fried & Changpeng Zhao would've been convicted criminals in 2023? They're going to be sentenced next year.
Of course there wouldn't had been a bridge of him being convicted but possibilities of
paroles may have been considered.
Since neither of them have yet been sentenced, then probation would be the most appropriate consideration of possible ways of a reduced sentence that involves prison time and probation, or in some cases no prison time is required, and the judge would hand out some probationary terms that may last many years or merely a short period of time.
I am pretty sure that you already have to be in prison in order to thereafter be eligible for parole, which usually would be some kind of an early release, and perhaps following terms of probation for a period of time, and maybe if the terms of parole are breached, then the person could easily end back up in custody and perhaps having to serve the remainder of the sentence. I get the sense that you may have been referring to probation rather than parole since the parole eligibility comes after already in prison for a while, from my understanding.
But why don't we think otherwise too if maybe he pleaded the guilty not to prolong the agitations or rumours of the bad image upon the crypto companies exchange (Binance) all to eject himself out to avoiding any forms of contact of his existence still in the company maybe to bear the consequences while the company has to maintain a reliable stability roles to still hold reliances to its clients? Possibly in due time the reality truth may showcase because a trace of prove to the fraudulent accused/agreed guiltiness should had been made known on how goes about such of his journey to the activity.
What if we lives to say sorry to CZ and Binance at large in due time?
It is quite likely that CZ has been consulting with attorneys for many years about these kinds of topics regarding if he were to ever be accused of a crime, and surely the consideration of the matter becomes more serious when actual criminal charges are filed. Even his pleading to the charge constituted several risks, including that he had to appear in person in a US court, which I am sure that his attorneys went back and forth a lot regarding whether he would be taken into custody, and maybe they cannot 100% guarantee that the USA government might end up taking him into custody, even if he seemed to have had gotten pre-agreement to their not taking him into custody.
Surely several of the details of the settlement are not exactly clear, and the interim between the announcement of the guilty plea and the actual sentencing will include more negotiations but also the providing of evidence and arguments in order for each side to iron out some of the potential terms and to attempt to remove some of the elements of surprise - while at the same time, it seems that even CZ's counsel has conceded that they may well be willing to agree to sentencing of 6 months of jail time. and surely those are not necessarily locked in stone, but sometimes it will show a certain amount of good faith negotiations and willingness to accept that some jail time is appropriate in CZ's case.