Celsius Network Founder Sentenced to 12 Years for Crypto Fraud

Celsius founder Alex Mashinsky sentenced to 12 years for crypto fraud. Celsius collapsed in 2022 with $1.19B deficit and 4.7B in user funds frozen. Mashinsky faked CEL token value using customer deposits and made $48M. Alex Mashinsky, the founder and former CEO of Celsius Network, has been sentenced to 12 years in prison for his involvement in a major cryptocurrency fraud case. The sentence was announced on May 8 by U.S. District Judge John Koeltl in Manhattan. In December 2023, Mashinsky pleaded guilty to several crimes, including fraud and market manipulation. Celsius Promised 17% Interest, Collapsed with $1.19B Deficit According to Bloomberg , the federal prosecutors had sought a 20-year prison term, referring to Mashinsky as the man who made no apology and cheated investors. Mashinsky, on the other hand, pleaded with the court for a reduced sentence of just over one year. They said that he wanted to help his family and former customers. In the end, the judge sentenced him to 12 years with 3 years of supervised release. Mashinsky was ordered to pay a $50,000 fine and forfeit almost 48.4 million in profits he had collected from the fraud. Celsius Network was established in 2017 and was then located in New Jersey. It promised high interest rates to those who deposited their cryptocurrency in the platform. Some customers were told by the company that they could earn up to 17% interest on their digital assets. The company profited by advancing these assets to institutional investors and looking to make a difference. However, from the year 2022, things began to fall apart. When the prices of the cryptocurrency reduced, several customers panicked and went to withdraw their money. Celsius lacked enough money to fulfill the need and filed for bankruptcy in July 2022. Then, the company was operating with a 1.19B USD deficit and 4.7B USD in customer assets locked up on the platform. Celsius CEO Withdrew $8M Before Freezing User Funds The legal case uncovered that this was not a new occurrence for the person of Mashinsky among other executives who had been in the plan for a long time that they were misleading the public. They used company funds, including customer deposits to purchase Celsius’s own digital token that is referred to as CEL to artificially increase the price. This lured the customers to believe that the token was performing well in the market. The truth was that CEL value was being faked through secret buy-ins. One of Celsius’s senior executives, Roni Cohen-Pavon, who also admitted guilt, told Mashinsky in private that the value of the token was fake and that they only maintained it using millions of dollars they pumped into it. However, Mashinsky continued to make false public statements that the company was financially strong and he was not selling his tokens. He really did secretly sell about 48 million dollars worth of CEL tokens even to his own company sometimes. Before Celsius froze customer withdrawals in June 2022, Mashinsky had quietly withdrawn 8 million from his own account. When the company finally ceased its operation, the large number of customers were left without access to their money. Mashinsky is also being sued in civil court by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, the Federal Trade Commission, and the New York Attorney General. This case has now become one of the most severe crypto fraud cases in recent years. Further, this may set new rules for the digital finance industry and the protection of investors. Source: https://www.livebitcoinnews.com/celsius-network-founder-sentenced-to-12-years-for-crypto-fraud/