TechFlow, April 29 — According to CoinDesk, the U.S. Department of Justice recently submitted a sentencing memorandum to the court, recommending that Alex Mashinsky, founder and former CEO of the cryptocurrency lending platform Celsius Network, be sentenced to 20 years in prison.
Mashinsky pleaded guilty last December, admitting to misleading users about deposit safety and manipulating the platform’s native token CEL. Prosecutors said his actions caused nearly $7 billion in user losses, constituting a "deliberate, carefully planned" fraud. At its peak, Mashinsky managed over $20 billion in user crypto assets through Celsius, but in reality, the platform engaged in unsecured lending and high-risk trading, secretly using user funds to manipulate the price of CEL. During this period, Mashinsky personally sold more than $48 million worth of CEL at artificially inflated prices.
The court will deliver its formal sentencing for Mashinsky on May 8.
