Quick Take
- A criminal trial for Alex Mashinsky, the former CEO of Celsius, is set to start in almost exactly a year.
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A criminal trial for Alex Mashinsky, the former CEO of Celsius, is set to start in almost exactly a year. Mashinsky’s trial date is set for Sept. 17, 2024, Bloomberg News reported on Tuesday.
Mashinsky was arrested in July after prosecutors said he defrauded customers and misled them about the crypto lender’s profitability. He pleaded not guilty to those criminal charges. The crypto lender filed for bankruptcy last year and owes billions of dollars to investors.
In July, prosecutors accused Mashinsky and the company of pumping the price of Celsius’s native token using customer assets and repeatedly misleading their customers. Roni Cohen-Pavon, Celsius’ chief revenue officer, was also named in criminal charges, and reportedly pleaded guilty last month.
Civil charges
In July, the Securities and Exchange Commission sued the crypto lender and Mashinsky for allegedly raising billions through fraudulent and unregistered sales of “crypto asset securities,” repeatedly lying to investors about Celsius’ financial standing, and manipulating the price of CEL, the company’s native token.
The Commodity Futures Trading Commission also filed its own fraud charges against Mashinsky and Celsius.
Mashinsky’s trial date was set a month after some of the former executive’s assets were ordered frozen, including a home in Texas and funds held at Goldman Sachs, Merrill Lynch and SoFi Bank.
