Former Celsius CEO to return to court on Nov. 13

Alex Mashinsky, the former CEO of crypto platform Celsius, will appear in a New York courtroom for the first time in months for oral arguments related to his motion to dismiss charges.

In an Oct. 23 filing in the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York, Judge John Koeltl ordered Mashinsky and prosecutors to appear in court on Nov. 13 to “preserve testimony” and address the former Celsius CEO’s motion to dismiss certain charges in the indictment. In January, Mashinsky’s lawyers filed motions to dismiss charges related to commodities fraud and market manipulation.

Authorities arrested and charged Mashinsky with seven felony counts in July 2023. Prosecutors alleged that the former CEO and former chief revenue officer Roni Cohen-Pavon “illicitly manipulat[ed] the price of CEL,” the platform’s token, with Mashinsky allegedly misleading users about the nature of their investments.

According to court records, Mashinsky had not appeared in court in person since February. In addition to the Nov. 13 hearing, Judge Koeltl ordered the parties to gather for a pretrial conference on Jan. 16. The former Celsius CEO’s jury trial is scheduled to begin on Jan. 28.

Cohen-Pavon has largely been restricted to traveling within and between New York and Israel since his arrest but may have attended the Token2049 conference in September after getting permission to travel to Singapore.

Related: Is an ex-Celsius exec planning to attend Token2049?

He initially pleaded not guilty to all charges, later changing his plea to guilty. Judge Koeltl is scheduled to sentence the former Celsius executive on Dec. 11.

Preserving testimony from witnesses 

Mashinsky, who resigned as the CEO of Celsius in September 2022, allegedly earned roughly $42 million in profits from CEL sales.

He pleaded not guilty to all charges, including securities fraud, commodities fraud, wire fraud, conspiracy to manipulate the price of CEL, fraudulent scheme to manipulate the price of CEL, market manipulation of the CEL token, and wire fraud related to manipulation of the CEL token.

The Nov. 13 court appearance likely related to a September filing from the former Celsius CEO, seeking “to preserve the testimony of six material witnesses who reside outside the United States,” including Cohen-Pavon.

Mashinsky’s lawyers alleged five of the six witnesses they plan on calling “ignored or disregarded [his] explicit instructions to generate revenue by consistently selling CEL tokens into the market and instead purchased excess CEL tokens on the FTX exchange throughout 2021.” 

Celsius filed for bankruptcy in the US in July 2022 but began repaying creditors in 2024. Mashinsky also has civil cases pending with the US Securities and Exchange Commission and the Commodity Futures Trading Commission.

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