Crypto lender Celsius co-founder and former CEO Alex Mashinsky has pleaded guilty to two counts of fraud and market manipulation, accepting a 30-year prison sentence.
Former Celsius CEO Alex Mashinsky just got 30 years in prison. I've been calling him a fraud for years, so he blocked me and tried to sue me twice. Celsius was a blatant Ponzi scheme, says financial analyst Jacob King.
In July 2023, Mashinsky was indicted on seven counts, including fraud, conspiracy, and market manipulation of the Celsius (CEL) token.
During his latest hearing in a New York court, he admitted that he misled the company's clients into investing in the platform and artificially inflated the value of CEL, including for his own personal gain. As a result of the fraudulent actions, Celsius clients lost $42 million.
Leading crypto lender Celsius filed for bankruptcy after the crypto asset price plunged in the summer of 2022, prompting a flurry of customer requests to withdraw funds from the platform. The company struggled to meet its obligations, and many users ended up losing access to their funds for months while the firm attempted to restructure.
In January 2023, Celsius officially emerged from bankruptcy and shifted its focus to Bitcoin mining.
