Alexander Mashinsky, ex-boss of the Celsius platform, sentenced to twelve years in prison for fraud in the United States

Almost three years after the implosion of his start-up, Alexander Mashinsky, founder and former boss of the Celsius cryptocurrency platform, was sentenced in the United States, Thursday, May 8, by a Federal Manhattan judge at twelve years in prison for fraud. The 59 -year -old man had pleaded guilty, in early December 2024, of fraud on financial titles, which avoided a trial and which allowed him to limit the charges that weighed against him.

The assistant prosecutor Allison Nichols presented Alexander Mashinsky as a financial predator, declaring that he had deceived customers from the start by exaggerating Celsius’ ability to create profits. “He was fed on hope, she said. Mashinsky knew exactly what he was doing: sell hope for these people. »»

The platform offered its customers to place their cryptocurrencies, in exchange for interest, and also to buy the company’s own digital currency, CEL. According to the accusation, Celsius leaders punctuated more than $ 4 billion (3.6 billion euros) in customer assets to finance, among other things, the operation of the company, make high -risk investments and loans without guarantees.

The former boss was also being prosecuted for manipulating the CEL price, in particular using, without their knowledge, funds deposited by customers to buy the currency and artificially inflate his course.

“The interest presented by the use of digital assets is real, but that does not authorize to deceive” Customers commented Jay Clayton, Federal Prosecutor of Manhattan, quoted in a press release.

More than $ 4.7 billion made inaccessible

Several victims spoke during the sentence determination hearing. Cameron Crewes, which is part of a committee representing them, called for a “Severing”, Affirming that nearly 250 people died before they can see justice rendered or be properly compensated for their losses. “Many people have been wiped out”, he said.

At the top of its popularity, at the end of 2021, Celsius had more than a million customers and claimed more than $ 25 billion in assets invested on the platform. But the crisis which followed the fall in the digital currency Terra (UST), in the spring of 2022, made a wind of panic blow on the cryptocurrency market and resulted in massive withdrawals on several platforms.

Defense attributed the fall of Celsius to a “Cataclysmic collapse” cryptocurrency markets, and said that the acts of his client “Have never been predatory, exploiting or venal. He never acted with the intention of harming anyone. »»

Taken in the turmoil, Celsius decided, in mid-June 2022, to freeze the assets before depositing the bankruptcy a month later. At the time, more than $ 4.7 billion had been made inaccessible. According to a stage report published at the end of March, around 93 % of frozen funds were recovered and redistributed to former customers.

A sector upset by the cryptocurrency crisis

Before being convicted, Mr. Mashinsky sobbed several times by apologizing to customers and evoking his difficult past when his family had left a small Ukrainian town from the former Soviet Union with the help of the United States when he was 7 years old. Installed in Israel, Alexander Mashinsky served three years in Israeli defense forces as a fighter pilot before coming to America. He assured that he had “Never wanted to hurt anyone, after all that this country has done to [lui] ». “I’m really sorry”, he said, describing himself as someone “Who started from nothing”.

A series of cryptocurrency actors have been swept away by the 2022 background blade, including FTX, the second largest world exchange platform when it was balart, in November of the same year.

This crisis has caused a consounge for the sector, in search of credibility to attract institutional investors and individuals. It has since been revived by several favorable court decisions and by the coming to power of Donald Trump, determined to pave the way for digital currencies.