If the government wanted to put Zhao in jail for serious time, why did they let him plead to something with such a short sentence? It makes me wonder about the matter under seal we keep hearing about.
He and Burck are having a back-and-forth now about the appropriateness of jail time as recommended by the probation department.
We know from CZ’s messages quoted in multiple court cases that avoiding anti-money laundering controls was not exactly a mistake but a strategy. The language cuts against the idea that CZ is taking “full responsibility” for his misconduct...
He’s making a strong case that the government’s request for three years is way out of line. CZ looks less unhappy listening to his lawyers speak; he’s listening intently, with his eyebrows up.
“When we read the government’s submission... it read to us like the kind of submission a desperate defendant would write” because it says, essentially, to ignore the sentencing guidelines.
Some of the filings have been sealed. Wonder what this is!!
He “admitted his mistake,” Bartlett says, and asks whether there is anything else CZ could possibly have done to show remorse. Bartlett says he can’t think of anything else.