The founder and former CEO of Celsius Network, a cryptocurrency lending platform, has pleaded guilty to federal fraud charges in New York federal court. Alexander Mashinsky, 58, admitted to commodities and securities fraud, acknowledging that he misled customers about the business operations.
Mashinsky confessed to illegally manipulating the price of Celsius’s proprietary crypto token and selling his own tokens at inflated prices, pocketing approximately $48 million before Celsius Network collapsed into bankruptcy in 2022. He admitted to deceiving customers by suggesting regulatory consent for the company's actions in 2021 and falsely claiming not to sell crypto tokens in 2019.
