Celsius founder Mashinsky pleads guilty to a maximum sentence of 30 years, spending 8 million euros a week on CEL fraudulently

Celsius CEO Alex Mashinsky pleaded guilty to fraud in court on 12/3, becoming another high-profile figure in the crypto world after the FTX collapse in 2022. Mashinsky, once regarded as the pioneer of encryption banking, was sued for fraudulently manipulating CEL Token prices, false advertising, and other behaviors, and was transferred for prosecution in 2023. He has now changed his plea. If the sentence is less than 30 years, there can be no objection to the judgment.

Admit to manipulating the price of CEL Token and making false statements

Mashinsky admitted to two counts of fraud, including commodity fraud and manipulating Token prices, in the federal court in New York on 12/3. He said, 'I know I did wrong and I am willing to make full amends.' Mashinsky also confessed to the judge that he induced customers to exchange Bitcoin for the platform's coin CEL through Celsius' investment plan in December 2021, and falsely implied to users that Celsius had obtained regulatory approval, deceiving the users' trust.

Celsius's collapse marks the beginning of the crypto winter

Celsius closed down in 2022 and accumulated over 1 billion dollars in debt, marking the beginning of the market crash in 2022. Subsequently, Stable Coin TerraUSD, FTX exchange, and others experienced consecutive bankruptcies, triggering a crypto winter. At that time, Celsius attracted users with high interest rate returns, but with the market collapse, a large number of users withdrew their funds, and Celsius declared bankruptcy.

According to the prosecutor's office, Mashinsky illegally profited $42 million by manipulating the price of the platform coin CEL. Celsius even misappropriated customer deposits to support the price through token buybacks, but the actual value is "appalling".

Former senior executive cooperation proves Mashinsky, guilty of protocol capping 30-year prison sentence.

Celsius's former executive Roni Cohen-Pavon pleaded guilty last year, cooperated with the prosecution, and provided crucial evidence. The prosecution stated that Cohen-Pavon privately told Mashinsky, "No one is buying CEL in the market, no one wants to buy it at all, we are just pretending to do so ourselves," and further said, "The price is completely fake, we spend 8 million US dollars every week just to keep the price stable."

Mashinsky's guilty plea will avoid the scheduled trial in January next year, but he has also accepted the conditions in the guilty plea protocol. If the sentence is less than 30 years, he cannot object to the verdict, and the final result will be announced on April 8th next year.

(Celsius founder Mashinsky faces a century of imprisonment, hoping to overturn the case by having former employees take the blame)

This article is about Celsius founder Mashinsky pleading guilty and facing a maximum sentence of 30 years, for CEL's weekly expenditure of 8 million euros. It was first reported by ChainNews ABMedia.