Alex Mashinsky, the founder and former CEO of the Celsius Celsius network of the collapsed cryptographic lendist, faces the possibility of spending the next two decades after bars if the request for the MEMORANDO of Judgment of the Department of Justice of the United States is awarded.
In the memo presented on Monday night, the Department of Justice urged the Court to impose a 20 -year prison sentence, calling crimes a “deliberate and calculated” fraud that caused almost $ 7 billion in client losses and left thousands financially devastated.
Mashinsky, who declared himself guilty in December of misrepresenting the safety of customer deposits and manipulating the Token Cel of Celsius, “refuses to accept responsibility” for their crimes and continues to change regulators, market conditions and even their victims, prosecutors said.
“Mashinsky’s crimes were not a product of negligence, naivety or bad luck,” they wrote. “They were the result of deliberate and calculated decisions to lie, deceive and steal in the search for personal fortune.”
At its peak in 2021, Celsius achieved more than $ 20 billion in cryptographic assets of the client. Mashinsky aggressively commercialized the platform as a safe alternative to banks, promising high yields and low risk.
The prosecutors said that these promises were a farce: Celsius received loans without appealing, carried out risky and active operations of the customers used in secret to manipulate the price of their Token Cel, all while the clients publicly assured that their funds were safe.
Mashinsky personally sold more than $ 48 million in CEL at inflated prices, prosecutors said, even when he told customers that he was “hitting” next to them. When Celsius collapsed in bankruptcy in July 2022, approximately $ 4.7 billion in client funds were trapped.
After bankruptcy, customers stayed with a deficit of more than $ 1 billion. Adjusting today’s crypto prices after the “Trump-Trade” concentration of 2024, prosecutors estimate that the total loss is closer to $ 7 billion.
Prosecutors warned that something less than a significant prison sentence would not reflect the severity of Mashinsky’s behavior, undermine respect for the law and send the incorrect message to other executives of temporary cryptography tempted to pursue personal enrichment at the expense of their clients.
Judge John G. Koeltl will sentence Mashinsky on May 8.
