Former Celsius Network CEO Alex Mashinsky Sentenced to 12 Years in Prison

Former CEO of Celsius Nework Alex Mashinsky received a 12-year prison sentence on Thursday for abusing Celsius customers and manipulating the price of the token of the lender, cell.

Mashinsky, 58, committed one counting of committing raw material fraud and one counting of committing securities fraud last December. He was initially charged with seven charges, including two counts of wire fraud and a fraudulent schedule to manipulate the price of cell.

Prior to the conviction of Mashinsky, federal prosecutors ordered the former CEO to serve 20 years in prison, while the defense asked for a one -year and one day for his client.

Some creditors of the degraded lender had called Mashinsky to receive the most difficult punishment for his crimes. The charges were a maximum prison sentence of 30 years.

In a letter to Judge Koeltl of 5 May, Mashinsky’s lawyers said that a longer punishment would amount to a “dead-prisoner” punishment. They argued that the reasoning of the US government has served for its recommendations for conviction to demonize ‘ [Mashinsky’s] Intentions and motivations, his character and personality, and attributing his misconduct to a sadistic institution. “

“He was not motivated by malice, cruelty, greed or ego,” said the lawyers about Mashinsky in the application. “And his guilty plea is certainly not an agreement to give up good faith, diligent advocacy or to present evidence in the conviction.”

Celsius declared bankruptcy in July 2022, a few weeks after freezing recordings on its platform, with reference to ‘extreme market conditions’. The trading platform experienced a cascade in bank-run style of recordings that could not honor it a month earlier, shortly after the crash of Algorithmic Stablecoins Luna and UST ensured that the cryptocurrency market for crater.

Celsius customers lost more than $ 5 billion in the company’s implosion. There are efforts to repay creditors.

Published by James Rubin