Ex-Celsius CEO sentenced to jail for fraud

Alex Mashinsky, the founder of cryptocurrency lender Celsius Network, was ordered to spend 12 years in prison for defrauding hundreds of thousands of customers lured by his firm's high interest rates on digital asset deposits.

- CHRIS DOLMETSCH

Mashinsky, who pleaded guilty in December, was sentenced Thursday by US District Judge John Koeltl in Manhattan. Federal prosecutors had sought a 20-year prison term for the 59-year-old former chief executive officer, calling him "unrepentant."

Celsius’ bankruptcy was part of the 2022 “crypto winter” that wiped out billions of dollars in asset value. Under US President Joe Biden, the Justice Department launched a series of prosecutions targeting crypto industry figures. Sam Bankman-Fried, whose FTX exchange collapsed four months after Celsius, is currently serving a 25-year sentence for fraud, and Terraform Labs founder Do Kwon is still awaiting trial.