(Bloomberg) -- Binance Holdings Ltd. will pay $4.3 billion after a judge approved a plea deal that levies one of the largest criminal penalties in US history against the world’s biggest cryptocurrency exchange.

“This really is a case where the ethics of the company were compromised by greed,” US District Judge Richard Jones said at a sentencing hearing in Seattle on Friday.

Late last year, Binance and its founder, Changpeng Zhao, pleaded guilty to anti-money laundering and sanctions charges to resolve a long-running investigation by prosecutors and regulators. Binance admitted that it allowed transactions with Hamas and other terrorist groups on the exchange.

As part of the deal, the company’s compliance must be monitored by an independent firm for as long as five years. The monitor hasn’t yet been apppointed. Bloomberg reported earlier that New York-based law firm Sullivan & Cromwell was poised to take the coveted role. 

Read More: Binance Pleads Guilty, Loses CZ, Pays Fines to End Legal Woes

In urging the judge to approve the deal, prosecutors said in a filing that Binance left the financial system vulnerable to “those who seek to exploit our system for their own gain.” 

“In sum, given the nature and seriousness of Binance’s misconduct — it was intentional and led by senior executives, with hundreds of millions of dollars of collateral consequences,” prosecutors wrote.

Josh Eaton, Binance’s deputy general counsel, told the judge the company “accepts full responsibility for its past and for the reasons we’re sitting here today.”

“We’re also proud of the compliance enhancements” undertaken over the past several years, Eaton said.

Jones said Binance knew that it was subject to US laws, yet “despite this knowledge the defendant made calculated decisions not to follow US laws.” He said the sentence seeks to deter this behavior in the future by Binance and similar companies, as well as protect customers.

Zhao, whose sentencing was pushed off until April, is expected to get no more than 18 months in prison even though he could have faced as long as a decade. As part of the plea agreement, he relinquished his chief executive officer post at Binance and agreed to pay a $50 million fine.

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