Former cryptocurrency leader Alex Mashinsky has pleaded guilty to two counts of fraud. The founder and CEO of Celsius Network was indicted in 2023 on seven criminal charges, including fraud, conspiracy and market manipulation charges. At the time, Mr. Mashinsky entered a not guilty plea, but at today’s hearing, Mr. Mashinsky pleaded guilty to two of the original charges. The first is a product scam, and the second is a fraudulent scheme to manipulate the price of the company’s internal crypto token, CEL. Reuters reported that as part of the plea agreement, Mashinsky agreed not to appeal a sentence of up to 30 years.
Mashinsky’s case is one of several fraud cases being pursued against leaders of crypto businesses. The most well-known charges are against FTX founder Sam Bankman Freed, who was convicted in 2023 on seven counts of fraud.
State agencies began pursuing fraud charges against crypto schemes in 2022, but rising interest rates and high inflation caused token prices to plummet and several prominent companies to file for bankruptcy. In the same year, the Federal Trade Commission announced that since 2021, victims of cryptocurrency schemes have lost more than $1 billion.
