Celsius’ Mashinsky lashes out at ‘death-in-prison sentence’

Published

5 months ago

May 6, 2025

admin

Celsius’ Mashinsky lashes out at ‘death-in-prison sentence’

Alex Mashinsky, the founder and former CEO of bankrupt crypto lending platform Celsius, has blasted the government’s 20-year “venom-laced” sentence request, declaring it a “death-in-prison sentence.”

The US Department of Justice requested Mashinsky receive at least 20 years behind bars in the May 8 sentencing for his role in misleading Celsius users and profiting from the price manipulation of Celsius (CEL), which would make the 59-year-old 79 if he serves the whole sentence.

Lawyers acting for Mashinsky argued in a May 5 reply memorandum filed in a New York district court that he should receive no more than 366 days, because the DOJ hasn’t taken into account his status as a nonviolent first-time offender with a previously unblemished 30-year history in business.

“The government’s venom-laced submission recasts this case as one involving a predator with an intent to target victims, harm them, and steal their money,” they said.

“It concludes by recommending that a first time, nonviolent offender who pled guilty and accepts responsibility receive a death-in-prison sentence.”

Cryptocurrencies, Law, United States, Department of Justice, Celsius — *Lawyers acting for Mashinsky argue the DOJ has ignored their client’s background in its sentencing request. Source:* *Court Listener*

Mashinsky pleaded guilty to two out of seven charges

As part of a plea agreement, Mashinsky pleaded guilty in December 2024 to commodities fraud and manipulating the price of CEL, earning $48 million by selling his holdings before Celsius collapsed in June 2022. Prosecutors initially filed seven charges in July 2023.

Lawyers acting for Mashinsky allege the DOJ’s push for a 20-year sentence is because their client is unwilling to “capitulate to the government’s exaggerated characterizations of his actions,” specifically that he was a “fraud from the get-go.”

“Alex is inserted as the scapegoat for every corporate action, every group decision, every unanimous vote, every market fluctuation, and every employee’s watercooler speculation,” they said.

As part of its April 28 sentencing request, the DOJ said Mashinsky’s guilty plea showed that his crimes were deliberate, calculated decisions to lie, deceive and steal.

Days earlier on April 23, US federal prosecutors also filed statements from hundreds of victims who lost money due to the Celsius collapse. They detailed how some had entrusted their life savings to the protocol, believing Mashinsky’s assurances that it was safe.

Celsius filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy on July 13, 2022, owing $4.7 billion to creditors after halting withdrawals in June, citing volatile market conditions.

In November 2023, a US bankruptcy court approved Celsius’ restructuring plan to repay customers, and in August 2024, $2.53 billion was paid to 251,000 creditors.

Former Celsius chief revenue officer Roni Cohen-Pavon also pleaded guilty in September 2023 to similar charges, but his Dec. 11 sentencing has been delayed until after Mashinsky is sentenced.

Magazine: Crypto wanted to overthrow banks, now it’s becoming them in stablecoin fight

Politics

Badenoch pulls off first conference speech as leader, but it is less clear if this will be her last

Published

3 hours ago

October 9, 2025

admin

Badenoch pulls off first conference speech as leader, but it is less clear if this will be her last

There’s no question that Kemi Badenoch’s on the ropes after a low-energy first year as leader that has seen the Conservative Party slide backwards by pretty much every metric.

But on Wednesday, the embattled leader came out swinging with a show-stopping pledge to scrap stamp duty, which left the hall delirious. “I thought you’d like that one,” she said with a laugh as party members cheered her on.

A genuine surprise announcement – many in the shadow cabinet weren’t even told – it gave the Conservatives and their leader a much-needed lift after what many have dubbed the lost year.

Politics latest: Stamp duty to be axed under Tories

Ms Badenoch tried to answer that criticism this week with a policy blitz, headlined by her promise on stamp duty.

This is a leader giving her party some red meat to try to help her party at least get a hearing from the public, with pledges on welfare, immigration, tax cuts and policing.

In all of it, a tacit admission from Ms Badenoch and her team that as politics speeds up, they have not kept pace, letting Reform UK and Nigel Farage run ahead of them and grab the microphone by getting ahead of the Conservatives on scrapping net zero targets or leaving the ECHR in order to deport illegal migrants more easily.

Ms Badenoch is now trying to answer those criticisms and act.

At the heart of her offer is £47bn of spending cuts in order to pay down the nation’s debt pile and fund tax cuts such as stamp duty.

All of it is designed to try to restore the party’s reputation for economic competence, against a Labour Party of tax rises and a growing debt burden and a Reform party peddling “fantasy economics”.

She needs to do something, and fast. A YouGov poll released on the eve of her speech put the Conservatives joint third in the polls with the Lib Dems on 17%.

That’s 10 percentage points lower than when Ms Badenoch took power just under a year ago. The crisis, mutter her colleagues, is existential. One shadow cabinet minister lamented to me this week that they thought it was “50-50” as to whether the party can survive.

Ms Badenoch had to do two things in her speech on Wednesday: the first was to try to reassert her authority over her party. The second was to get a bit of attention from the public with a set of policies that might encourage disaffected Tories to look at her party again.

On the first point, even her critics would have to agree that she had a successful conference and has given herself a bit of space from the constant chatter about her leadership with a headline-grabbing policy that could give her party some much-needed momentum.

On the second, the promise of spending control coupled with a retail offer of tax cuts does carve out a space against the Labour government and Reform.

But the memory of Liz Truss’s disastrous mini-Budget, the chaos of Boris Johnson’s premiership, and the failure of Sunak to cut NHS waiting lists or tackle immigration still weigh on the Conservative brand.

Ms Badenoch might have revived the room with her speech, but whether that translates into a wider revival around the country is very hard to read.

Ms Badenoch leaves Manchester knowing she pulled off her first conference speech as party leader: what she will be less sure about is whether it will be her last.

I thought she tacitly admitted that to me when she pointedly avoided answering the question of whether she would resign if the party goes backwards further in the English council, Scottish parliament and Welsh Senedd elections next year.

“Let’s see what the election result is about,” was her reply.

That is what many in her party are saying too, because if Ms Badenoch cannot show progress after 18 months in office, she might see her party turn to someone else.