New York, NY – Alex Mashinsky, founder and former CEO of the Celsius Network cryptographic loan loan platform, was sentenced to 12 years in prison on Thursday for fraud.
Judge John Koeltl, from the Southern District of New York (SDNY), issued the sentence, saying the 12 years, composed of a 120 -month sentence to be fulfilled simultaneously with a separate sentence of 144 months by the two positions of Mashinsky, he declared himself guilty, he reflected the “extremely serious” crimes of Mashinsky. The sentence divides the difference between a year and a prison day requested by its defense team, and the 20 years suggested by prosecutors. He also agreed to lose $ 48 million and several real estate pieces.
“No matter what prayer, prayer will not cure the monetary or psychological damage caused to the victims,” Koeltl said.
Before Celsius’s collapse in 2022, Mashinsky repeatedly lied to investors about the safety of their deposits. He falsely said that Celsius had the regulatory approval, he insisted that the platform did not grant non -collateral loans when, in fact, he did it, and lied about selling his tokens Cel while manipulating the price of his own financial gain, which obtains more than $ 48 million in Cel alone profits, prosecutors said. Poor leadership and self -care of Mashinsky led Celsius to bankruptcy, leaving a large hole of $ 1.2 billion, which prosecutors said it is more like $ 7 billion at current prices, in the company’s balance.
When Celsius collapsed, more than 100,000 creditors said they lost a collective of $ 4.7 billion according to the initial bankruptcy documents.
“Alexander Mashinsky attacked retail investors with promises that he would maintain his’ safer digital assets than a bank, when he used those assets to place risky bets and align his own pockets,” said US prosecutor Jay Clayton in a statement. “In the end, Mashinsky made dozens of millions of dollars, while his clients lost billions. The United States investors deserve better. The case of tokenization and the use of digital assets is strong, but it is not a license to deceive. The rules against fraud still apply, and the SDNY will hold them for their crimes.”
In both their documents prior to the sentence and in their testimony in court on Thursday, Mashinsky and his lawyers tried to minimize the role of the only time in fraud. His lawyers told the court that Mashinsky “does not have a malicious bone in his body” and that the government’s attempt to characterize him as the architect of a fraud scheme was “a hoax.”
Mashinsky cried as his lawyer, Marc Mukasey, told the court his personal characteristics, including his military service in the Israeli army, his alleged history of hiring homeless people to work in his various companies and, disconcerting, about his continuous work in a non -fiction book about his arrest, which he urged the judge to consider as mitigatory factors for Mashinsky’s sentence. When Mashinsky himself spoke with the judge, he cried intermittently when he apologized for the damage caused to his victims.
“As someone who came out of nowhere, I recognize how difficult people work to win, save and invest in cryptography,” Mashinsky said. “I respectfully ask the victims for forgiveness and I apologize for my mistakes. I’m very sorry.”
Six of those victims spoke in court on Thursday, detailing their pain and suffering after Celsius’s collapse.
A victim, Cameron Crewes, told the court that Mashinsky and the turn of his lawyers in his conduct was a “horrible minimization” of the damage he caused in Celsius.
“Defense says he is working in a new book on gravity, but he seems not to understand the seriousness of the situation,” Crewes said, added that at least 231 Celsius creditors have died since the collapse of the platform, and that it will never do everything.
Another creditor, Hollis Waite, described how he was “unfortunately not prepared” to send his two young children to the university after losing a significant part of his savings in Celsius. Another, Hugh Mitton, he told the court that he had lost his sleep, his mental health and his time from Celsius’s collapse. Mitton dismissed with the characterization of Mashinsky’s lawyers that his son’s university graduation was voluntarily lost, also on Thursday, to attend his sentence and assume responsibility for his crimes.
“[He] He does not mention all people who can no longer afford to send their children to the university, ”said Mitton.
Both the victims and the prosecutors pointed out Mashinsky’s continuous failure to take real responsibility for the actions that led to the fall of Celsius, as well as to the financial gain that he and his wife Krissy made of Celsius, even during his collapse and posterior bankrupt “Slogan” posterior “.
Mashinsky had a stone face while listening to the testimony of his victims. When the judge issued the sentence, he seemed really surprised, saying:
“I feel that while I am here to assume responsibility, I am assuming the responsibility of a thousand employees. None of them has appeared to say what they have done. That’s all, their honor.”
As part of your guilt agreement, Mashinsky cannot appeal your sentence. He was ordered to self -form to prison to begin his sentence in September. His lawyers requested that he be allowed to comply with his sentence at FCI Otisville, an average security prison in New York that is also a temporary home for the exploiter of the Mango markets Avi Eisenberg, who was recently sentenced to four years in prison for possession of child pornography.
If it meets the entire sentence, Mashinsky will be 72 years at the launch.
