Alex Mashinsky, the former CEO of cryptocurrency lender Celsius, has pleaded guilty to one count of commodities fraud and one count of securities fraud.<\/p>\n
Together, these charges carry a maximum prison sentence of 30 years.<\/p>\n
Mashinsky was initially indicted<\/a> in July 2023 on seven charges, including fraud, conspiracy, and market manipulation related to Celsius\u2019 token, CEL.<\/p>\n During a Tuesday hearing before U.S. District Judge John Koeltl, he admitted to making false claims about Celsius\u2019s \u201cEarn\u201d program. The program misled investors into transferring their Bitcoin to the platform, earning him an estimated $48 million in profit.<\/p>\n \u201cI said that Celsius had approval from regulators,\u201d said Mashinsky, according to an Inner City Press report<\/a>. \u201cIt was false. I falsely said I was not selling my CEL tokens. I accept full responsibility for my actions.\u201d<\/p>\n According to court documents<\/a>, the former executive has agreed to forfeit the proceeds from his illegal schemes. Judge Koeltl is scheduled to sentence him on April 8, 2025.<\/p>\n Federal prosecutors have accused the 59-year-old of luring retail investors into Celsius by promising high returns while secretly manipulating the market to inflate the price of the company\u2019s native CEL token.<\/p>\n U.S. Attorney Damian Williams described his actions as \u201cone of the biggest frauds in the crypto industry,\u201d highlighting how he exploited catchy slogans like \u201cUnbank Yourself\u201d to attract billions in investments.<\/p>\n Celsius, a crypto lending platform, offered services like earning rewards on crypto deposits, taking loans secured by crypto, and custodying assets. The primary offering was the \u201cEarn\u201d program, which promised high returns by investing users\u2019 crypto. Under Mashinsky, the firm misrepresented its offerings\u2019 safety, profitability, and sustainability to attract retail customers.<\/p>\n The 59-year-old and other executives manipulated the market to inflate the value of CEL. Court documents show that he and former chief revenue officer Roni Cohen-Pavon spent millions of dollars using customer deposits to support CEL\u2019s price artificially, misleading investors about its true value.<\/p>\n Mashinsky personally profited by selling $48 million worth of CEL at inflated prices while falsely claiming he wasn\u2019t selling. Before the platform halted withdrawals on June 12, 2022, he had withdrawn $8 million worth of crypto assets. The pause left customers unable to access $4.7 billion in crypto, and by July 13, 2022, the company filed <\/a>for Chapter 11 bankruptcy.<\/p>\n The former CEO\u2019s guilty plea follows that of Roni Cohen-Pavon, who also admitted <\/a>guilt in September 2023. Cohen-Pavon admitted to four charges, including involvement in inflating the price of CEL. He agreed to cooperate with officials in their investigations and is scheduled for sentencing on December 11.<\/p>\n The post Here\u2019s Alex Mashinsky\u2019s Maximum Prison Sentence After Pleading Guilty to Fraud Charges<\/a> appeared first on CryptoPotato<\/a>.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Alex Mashinsky, the former CEO of cryptocurrency lender Celsius, has pleaded guilty to one count of commodities fraud and one count of securities fraud. Together, these charges carry a maximum prison sentence of 30 years. Mashinsky\u2019s Guilty Plea Mashinsky was initially indicted in July 2023 on seven charges, including fraud, conspiracy, and market manipulation related […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":25692,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-25691","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-discovery"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mycryptomania.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25691"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mycryptomania.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mycryptomania.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mycryptomania.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=25691"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/mycryptomania.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25691\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mycryptomania.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/25692"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mycryptomania.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=25691"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mycryptomania.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=25691"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mycryptomania.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=25691"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}Fraudulent Practices Behind Celsius\u2019 Collapse<\/h2>\n