Binance hires a close friend of Trump's eldest son to lobby the White House, paying his company $450,000 in the past month

ChainCatcher news, according to Politico, Ches McDowell, a hunting partner of Donald Trump Jr. and a lobbyist from North Carolina, is becoming one of Washington's highest-paid lobbyists. His company, Checkmate Government Relations, has generated $7.1 million in revenue in just the past three months, and this company only established an office in Washington earlier this year.

According to disclosure reports, Binance hired McDowell at the end of September to lobby for financial policy issues and "administrative relief" matters at the White House and the Treasury Department. Binance paid Checkmate $450,000 for its work over the past month.

However, Zhao Changpeng's efforts to seek a pardon go back much further than a month. As early as February of this year, just three weeks after Trump was sworn in as President of the United States, both Binance and Zhao Changpeng himself hired prominent cryptocurrency lawyer Teresa Goody Guillén. Trump had considered appointing her as the chair of the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). Her law firm reported that it has received a total of $290,000 in fees from Binance and Zhao Changpeng so far this year.

Neither McDowell nor Goody Guillén responded to requests for comment.