Who is the richest person to ever land in a US prison? His crypto connections might surprise you

Over the years, several well-known personalities have been imprisoned in US prisons, including football legend Orenthal James 'OJ' Simpson and Oscar-winning actor Robert Downey Jr.

But do you know who the richest inmate ever to serve time in a federal prison is? Hint: He's a blockchain entrepreneur who founded the world's largest cryptocurrency exchange, which sees billions of dollars in daily trading volume.

You guessed it right! He is Zhao Changpengor CZ, who once headed the cryptocurrency giant Binance BNB/USD.

What happened: In early April, CZ was sentenced to four months in prison for failing to implement an effective anti-money laundering program at the exchange. The former CEO of Binance began his sentence in early June.

At the time of his conviction, he was the 34th richest person in the world, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index, with a net worth of more than $40 billion.

Zhao's wealth comes from his majority stake in Binance, which is estimated at 90%.

At the time of this writing, CZ's wealth has shrunk to $28.2 billion, dropping him to the 61st richest person in the world. Yet he remains in the history books with the infamous title of richest U.S. prisoner.

See also: Bitcoin miners expand capacity as network hashrate hits new record despite recent price drop

Why it is important: As part of a settlement with U.S. authorities, CZ resigned from his position at Binance last year, with the company agreeing to pay $4.3 billion in fines related to various regulatory enforcement actions.

After his departure Richard Teng took over the management of Binance.

CZ's detention was the latest in a rather disturbing trend of successful cryptocurrency entrepreneurs being put on trial for financial fraud.

Sam Bankman Friedthe former CEO of the collapsed cryptocurrency exchange FTXwas sentenced to 25 years in prison in March.

Additionally, Kwon DoctorCo-founder of Terraform Labswas found guilty of defrauding investors during the infamous stablecoin collapse TerraUSD USD/CHF in April.

Price promotion: At the time of writing, BNB, the native token of the Binance ecosystem, was trading at $520.32, down 1.34% in the past 24 hours, according to data from Benzinga Pro. The fourth-largest cryptocurrency has grown 65% year-to-date despite legal issues.

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Photo courtesy: Flickr