Former Celsius CEO pleads guilty to two fraud charges

Former cryptocurrency leader Alex Mashinsky has pleaded guilty to two fraud charges. The founder and CEO of Celsius Network was indicted on seven criminal counts in 2023, including charges of fraud, conspiracy and market manipulation. He entered a not guilty plea at the time, but in a hearing today, Mashinsky pled guilty to two of those original counts. The first is commodities fraud and the second is a fraudulent scheme to manipulate the price of his company's in-house crypto token CEL. Reuters reported that as part of a plea deal, Mashinsky has agreed not to appeal any sentence of 30 years or less.

Mashinsky's case is one of several fraud cases being pursued against leaders of cryptocurrency operations. The most well-publicized charges are those brought against FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried, who was found guilty on seven counts of fraud in 2023.

National agencies began a push into fraud charges for cryptocurrency schemes in 2022, when several notable companies filed for bankruptcy as token prices plummeted in response to rising interest rates and high inflation. That year, the Federal Trade Commission said that victims of crypto schemes had lost more than $1 billion since 2021.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/big-tech/former-celsius-ceo-pleads-guilty-to-two-fraud-charges-224046043.html?src=rss https://www.engadget.com/big-tech/former-celsius-ceo-pleads-guilty-to-two-fraud-charges-224046043.html?src=rss
Creato 2mo | 3 dic 2024, 23:30:17


Accedi per aggiungere un commento

Altri post in questo gruppo

Marvel Snap, CapCut, Lemon8 and other ByteDance apps have also shut down in the US alongside TikTok

It’s been unclear in the leadup to the TikTok ban what the fate of parent company ByteDance’s other apps would be, but now we know: they’ve gone dark in the US too. At the same time

19 gen 2025, 17:40:14 | Engadget
Samsung Galaxy S25 Unpacked 2025 event: What to expect on Wednesday

Samsung’s first big launch of 2025 is almost here.

19 gen 2025, 17:40:13 | Engadget
TikTok is no longer available in the US

The switch has flipped on the US TikTok ban. TikTok's app stoped working and was removed from the App Store and Google Play on Saturday night, just hours before the January 19 ban was expected to t

19 gen 2025, 06:10:11 | Engadget
EV startup Canoo has filed for bankruptcy and stopped all operations

Canoo said on Friday night that it has

19 gen 2025, 01:30:09 | Engadget
Perplexity AI has reportedly submitted an 11th-hour bid to save TikTok in the US

Just one day before TikTok is expected to shut down in the US, startup Perplexity AI has submitted a bid to TikTok’s parent company ByteDance proposing a merger that would allow it to continue oper

18 gen 2025, 23:10:21 | Engadget
FTC orders Genshin Impact's developer to block young teens from making in-game purchases

Kids and younger teens might soon be unable to play Genshin Impact's

18 gen 2025, 23:10:20 | Engadget
Instagram swoops in with 3-minute Reels and rectangular profile grids as the TikTok ban gets real

Instagram is rolling out a bunch of changes this weekend that will conveniently make it look a lot more like TikTok, which

18 gen 2025, 20:51:06 | Engadget