As a seasoned financial analyst with over two decades of experience in the industry, I have witnessed the rise and fall of numerous companies, and Alex Mashinsky’s guilty plea to fraud charges is another stark reminder of the perils that can lurk within the world of finance.
On Tuesday afternoon, as reported by Reuters and Inner City Press, Alex Mashinsky, the founder and former CEO of the now-bankrupt crypto lending platform Celsius Network, admitted guilt to two charges of fraud.
He has reportedly agreed to a maximum sentencing guideline of 360 months, or 30 years, in prison.
In July last year, Mashinsky was taken into custody in New York for facing seven criminal allegations linked to the management of his company and its 2022 collapse. These charges encompass securities fraud, commodities fraud, wire fraud, and conspiring to manipulate the price of Celsius’ native token, CEL, among others.
In court, Inner City Press reported that Mashinsky admitted he made false statements. He claimed he said Celsius had regulatory approval, which wasn’t true. Additionally, he admitted to deceiving people by saying he wasn’t selling his CEL tokens, but he now takes full responsibility for his actions. Mashinsky also disclosed that he wasn’t aware of the specific law he was breaking, but he knew it was wrong and illegal.
Initially, Mashinsky denied the allegations and sought to discard two of them: the charge for commodities manipulation and a market manipulation charge. However, Judge John G. Koeltl of the Southern District of New York (SDNY) found that Mashinsky’s lawyer’s objections to these charges were baseless. Consequently, if Mashinsky opted for trial, he would have to confront the entire seven-count indictment.
In June 2022, Celsius temporarily stopped withdrawals, about a month following the downfall of Terra/LUNA led by Do Kwon. They attributed this action to “severely unfavorable market conditions.” Later in July, they applied for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in New York, which was one of several crypto platforms experiencing financial distress, including Voyager Digital, BlockFi, Genesis, and FTX.
Despite the financial strain that affected numerous cryptocurrency firms following the downfall of Terra/LUNA and Three Arrows Capital towards the end of 2022, it was primarily Celsius’ own mismanagement that led to their financial difficulties.
Prior to Celsius’ bankruptcy, Mashinsky frequently reassured customers during his live streams that they should disregard concerns about the company’s lending practices, as he claimed Celsius did not engage in non-collateralized loans due to the associated risk. Contrary to this assertion, it was later discovered that Celsius had indeed been making such uncollateralized loans, leading to a $1.2 billion gap on its balance sheet when it filed for bankruptcy. Lawyers representing the crypto lending platform confirmed this discrepancy.
Flashback to 2020: What Crypto Lender Celsius Isn’t Telling Its Depositors
Mashinsky is set to be sentenced in Manhattan on April 8, 2025 at 11:30 a.m. ET.
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2024-12-04 00:24