Alex Mashinsky, the founder and former CEO of collapsed crypto lender Celsius, will plead guilty to U.S. federal fraud charges, Reuters reported Tuesday.
Mashinsky reportedly said in a court hearing that he would plead guilty to two of the seven fraud counts levied against him: commodities fraud and conspiring to manipulate the price of the firm's CEL token.
The disgraced crypto founder's trial was set to begin on January 28, 2025, after a motion from his lawyers to dismiss two charges was denied by U.S. District Judge John Koeltl in November.
"I know what I did was wrong, and I want to try to do whatever I can to make it right," Mashinksy was quoted saying in court Tuesday.
Here Are All the Federal Charges Celsius Founder Mashinsky Faces
The U.S. Department of Justice today arrested former CEO of bankrupt crypto lender Celsius Network Alex Mashinsky and filed seven criminal charges against him. At a Thursday press conference, Michael A. Brodack, special agent in charge of the Criminal Division of the New York Field Office, said that 57-year-old Mashinsky earned more than $40 million after allegedly manipulating the price of CEL, Celsius’ native digital asset, and pocketing the returns. Brodack added: “When something seems too...
Celsius filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in July 2022, one month after halting all customer withdrawals. In July 2023, Mashinsky was hit with charges over an alleged $40 million in fraudulent gains at the expense of Celsius customers.
The popular crypto firm allowed users to take out loans using their digital coins and tokens as collateral, and it claimed to manage over $25 billion in assets at its peak.
But it all came tumbling down—with numerous other crypto companies—following the collapse of crypto mega project Terra in 2022 and the brutal crypto winter that followed.
After Celsius went bust and filed for bankruptcy, regulators and law enforcement alleged that Mashinsky and his company lied to customers about how safe the platform was, as well as selling unregistered securities.
Bankrupt Crypto Lender Celsius Has Repaid $2.5 Billion to Creditors
Bankrupt crypto lender Celsius has now reimbursed around two-thirds of its creditors, approximately 93% of the eligible money owed. According to the recent court filing, the company has now distributed $2.53 billion to over 251,000 creditors since the repayment plan kicked off in January 2024. Celsius, which declared bankruptcy in July 2022, allowed users to receive interest on crypto deposits. At the company's peak, it claimed to have had 1.7 million users with $25 billion in assets under manag...
Mashinsky and co-defendants "falsely touted Celsius as a safe alternative to banking—even though it was anything but," the Federal Trade Commission alleged last year.
And the U.S. Department of Justice alleged that Mashinsky conned the public about how well his company was doing "near its inception," according to an indictment.
Edited by Andrew Hayward
Editor's note: This was updated after publication with additional details.
