Former Celsius CEO Alex Mashinsky pleads guilty to two criminal counts in NY court: reports

Former Celsius CEO Alex Mashinsky pleaded guilty to some of his criminal charges, according to multiple reports. 

Mashinsky was criminally charged with securities fraud, commodities fraud, wire fraud, among other charges, according to the original complaint in July 2023.

Mashinsky pleaded guilty to two counts on Tuesday, according to reporting from Inner City Press. Mashinsky pleaded guilty to commodities fraud and to a fraudulent scheme to manipulate the price of the firm's native token, which could result in up to 20 years in prison, according to Bloomberg . 

Mashinsky, 59, was arrested in 2023 after prosecutors said he defrauded customers and misled them about Celsius’s profitability. Celsius was a crypto company that allowed customers to earn interest and take out loans. The firm filed for bankruptcy in 2022 and was later wrapped up earlier this year. 

In July 2023, prosecutors in the Southern District of New York said Mashinsky "repeatedly made public misrepresentations regarding core aspects of Celsius’s business and financial condition in order to induce retail customers to provide their crypto assets to Celsius and continue to use Celsius’s services."

Mashinsky has also caught the ire of multiple regulators. In July 2023, the Securities and Exchange Commission sued the crypto lender and Mashinsky for allegedly raising billions through fraudulent and unregistered sales of crypto, repeatedly lying to investors about Celsius’s financial standing and manipulating the price of CEL, the company's native token.