Alex Mashinsky, the ex-CEO of bankrupt crypto lender Celsius, insisted publicly that he was clinging to his share of the company’s CEL tokens. But according to the Justice Department, he netted millions of dollars by offloading coins at inflated prices.
The DOJ claims that Mashinsky, with the help of the company's former chief revenue officer, Roni Cohen-Pavon, manipulated the price of CEL by buying millions of dollars worth of the tokens—to help keep it afloat—without revealing it publicly. In some cases, Mashinsky and Cohen-Pavon also caused Celsius to dip into its customer deposits to buy CEL and prop up its price, the DOJ alleges.
