Alex Mashinsky of cryptocurrency firm Celsius Network sentenced to 12 years
Mashinsky's sentence was imposed by US District Judge John Koeltl in Manhattan, and is among the longest in a criminal case arising from the 2022 meltdown in cryptocurrency markets.
Sam Bankman-Fried, who led the FTX exchange, is serving a 25-year prison sentence after being convicted of fraud. He is appealing.
Federal prosecutors said Mashinsky, 59, misled customers about Celsius's safety, and artificially inflated the value of Celsius's proprietary token Cel.
They sought a prison term of at least 20 years, calling it 'just punishment' for Mashinsky's having victimized thousands of people and caused billions of dollars in losses, while drawing more than $48m of personal benefits.
'The case for tokenization and the use of digital assets is strong but it is not a license to deceive,' the the US attorney in Manhattan Jay Clayton said in a statement.
Mashinsky sought one year and one day in prison, saying he felt remorse and wanted to do right by his family and former Celsius customers. His sentence includes three years of supervised release and a $48.4m forfeiture.
Lawyers for Mashinsky were not immediately available for comment.
Founded in 2017, Celsius, based in Hoboken, New Jersey, filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in July 2022 after customers rushed to withdraw deposits as cryptocurrency prices fell.
Born in Ukraine, Mashinsky emigrated with his family to Israel, and moved to New York after visiting the city in 1988.
Cryptocurrency lenders have promised easy loan access and high interest rates to depositors while lending tokens to institutional investors, hoping to profit from the difference.
Celsius offered 17% interest on some deposits, but had a $1.19bn balance sheet deficit when it sought bankruptcy protection.
Mashinsky has also faced civil lawsuits by the US Securities and Exchange Commission, the US Commodity Futures Trading Commission, the US Federal Trade Commission and the New York attorney general Letitia James.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Daily Mail
4 minutes ago
- Daily Mail
Mom, 35, whacks teen girl with a Stanley Cup at school gates as victim says 'I thought I was going to die'
A New York teenager has said she was left traumatized after allegedly being hit over the head with a metal Stanley Cup by another girl's mom at her school. Madison Evans, 14, said she is now 'shaking all the time' after the attack left her with 17 stitches - and admits she may never use the brand again because of the distress. 'I can't even look at those cups anymore. Every time I see one, it just brings it all back,' she told the New York Post. The teen said the incident unfolded around 11am Tuesday as she was leaving Brentwood High School in Long Island and was approached by two girls who had issues with her cousin, but who she has never met before. She said the girls began bullying her because of her association with her cousin, and footage from outside the school showed the girls arguing back-and-forth. As one of the girls was held back by a security guard, Toni Monroe, 35, the mother of one of the girls, entered the spat. Monroe was heard telling her daughter to 'give me your Stanley', taking the large metal cup from her hands and confronting Madison with it. The footage allegedly showed Monroe bashing the 14-year-old over the head with the cup multiple times as her daughter also joined in. New York teenager Madison Evans, 14, says she has been left traumatized after allegedly being hit over the head with a metal Stanley cup by another girl's mom at her school The incident unfolded around 11am Tuesday as the teen was leaving Brentwood High School in Long Island, with footage showing two teens confronting Madison before Toni Monroe, 35, the mother of one of the girls, entered the spat Witnesses told the Post that Monroe then tried to run away after allegedly attacking the teen, but was stopped by a security guard. Monroe was arrested by the police in the parking lot and charged with assault. She was released without bail but was ordered to be fitted with an ankle monitor and barred from contacting Madison. Madison said the attack left her with blood streaming down her face, and said she was so shaken from the incident she 'thought (she) was going to die.' The teen said she initially thought Monroe was another girl at the school, admitting she was 'shocked' to find out it was allegedly a mother at the school. 'I thought it was another student, but then when I looked at her, she had a tattoo,' she continued. 'Then I just kept trying to defend myself.' Shameakca Forney, Madison's guardian, said the video was hard to believe as she condemned Monroe's alleged attack. 'If you're going to let the kids fight, then let the kids fight — kids will be kids, we've all done it growing up — but you don't jump in and fight kids,' Forney said. Monroe claimed in court that she was at the school to complain about her own daughter being bullied. But Madison's family told the Post that there was no excuse for the adult to have allegedly attacked the teen. 'As a mom you're supposed to diffuse the situation and take your daughter away to see what's going on instead of attacking a kid with a cup,' said Madison's cousin, Tyleen Smith. Brentwood schools Superintendent Wanda Ortiz-Rivera said in a statement after the footage circulated across social media that the incident was 'unacceptable.' 'The safety and well-being of our students is always our highest priority,' she said. 'This type of behavior will not be tolerated in our schools.'
Daily Mail
34 minutes ago
- Daily Mail
Britain's most elusive conman: The luxury lifestyle led by Zambian fraudster who stole £3.5m in elaborate scam before finally being deported after 25 YEARS
Dressed in a tailored suit and travelling only by chauffeur-driven limousines, Alick Kapikanya looked every inch the successful businessman. He lived in mansions in some of the most exclusives postcodes in leafy Cheshire, stayed in suites at five-star hotels and enjoyed a life many of us could only dream of. But beneath the glitz and glamour is not the story of a self-made man or go-getting entrepreneur. Kapikanya is in fact a fraudster who spun a web of lies stretching back decades, racking up 11 convictions including theft. And despite five deportation orders, the conman dodged being kicked out of Britain for an astonishing 27 years. But his crimes, which included stealing elderly victims' homes in an elaborate £3.5million mortgage scam, have finally caught up with him as the Appeal Court definitively ruled at the end of last month that he be deported. After 42 years in the UK, Kapikanya is to be sent back to his native Zambia. Now, as he stands defeated, the Daily Mail can reveal the luxury addresses at which he had lived while splashing his ill-gotten gains. The properties range from a riverside mansion in a desirable Cheshire town favoured by celebrities and footballers, to high-end flats in affluent suburbs in Manchester. Among his property portfolio was a gated mansion he owned between 2006 and 2007, on the sought-after Mereside Road, in Cheshire, where properties average £2.3million. Known as the area's millionaires' row, it lies in the desirable Knutsford town which forms part of Cheshire's 'Golden Triangle'. The area is popular among footballers and celebrities, and is home to the likes of England stars Jordan Pickford and John Stones. The impressive mansion is protected by tall gates and backs on to The Mere river. When the Daily Mail visited the address, a neighbour who said she remembered Kapikanya commented, 'Not a bit surprised to be honest. And plenty more like him around here.' Meanwhile, in 2021, Kapikanya was registered as having lived at a luxury flat at Chapel House, in the exclusive St James Park area, close to the posh suburb of Didsbury in Manchester. The conman changed his name to Alex May by deed poll after returning from jail, and had the same Didsbury residence registered as a company address under this name between 2023 and 2025. Residents at the flats told of how he had seemed 'normal'. One neighbour said: 'He lived here a few years ago. I remember him coming and going. 'He seemed very normal, nothing out of the ordinary.' But this was far from the case. Kapikanya's flamboyant lifestyle was not contained to just his fancy residences. He used the money, pocketed from conducting identity theft and remortgaging victims' homes, on lavish stays at West End hotels and gambling sessions at The Ritz Hotel Casino in Mayfair, and would travel only by limousine. And despite his convictions, he was a high-flying member of society. He would meet up with councillors to discuss the regeneration of Grimsby, and was in talks to take over Notts County FC and become a majority shareholder in Grimsby Town FC, though they ultimately fell through and led to the resignation of a deputy council leader. The 57-year-old first arrived in the UK aged 14 to be adopted, but was reportedly 'assimilated into a religious cult' when it fell through. Not long after, he fell into a life of crime. He was first warned he could be removed from Britain in 1992 after he was convicted of his first crime - attempted fraud and theft. Then in 1996 he was convicted of two offences of theft and was sentenced to 21 months' imprisonment. He was also convicted of theft of a motor vehicle and sentenced to a consecutive term of 15 months' imprisonment. It was following this, in 1998, that Kapikanya was first notified he was 'liable to deportation' because of his offending. In March 2000, after serving his sentence, he lost an appeal against deportation, but no order to remove him from the country was made. The conman was then further convicted of dishonesty in 2008 and again notified of his liability to deportation. In February 2010, notice of a decision to deport him was served. On 12 March 2013, then Home Secretary Theresa May made a decision to deport him but he successfully appealed and was granted leave to remain until 15 April 2016. Undeterred, he then picked up from where he left off and launched fresh scams. In 2014, Kapikanya and a property fraudster nicknamed 'Mr Fastcash' were found guilty of having led a housing crime gang who stole luxury homes across the country and illegally used them to obtain loans. The gang worked by stealing elderly people's identities to take ownership of properties, remortgage them and pocket the cash. A total of ten homes were targeted in the £3.5m scam. Four were targeted in Worsley, Greater Manchester, one each in the villages of Hale and Malpas, Cheshire, and three properties owned by a couple in Sleaford, Lincolnshire. Kapikanya had helped to recruit the team of conmen including a crooked conveyancing agent to acquire the title deeds of houses then use fake passports, driving licences and utility bills to pose as the real homeowners. The gang would go to solicitors' offices throughout Britain using the fake documents to sign over the properties to property tycoon 'Mr Fastcash' - real name Marshall Joseph - so he could take out loans with a number of financial institutions and secure mortgages against the 'stolen' homes. The victims, the true owners of the ten homes involved, knew nothing about the illegal loans secured on their homes until police uncovered the scam after the gang defaulted on secured loan repayments. The group, who had successfully gained £3.5m from their fraud and were about to obtain an addition £3.3m, were jailed in 2014 after the case was heard at Manchester Crown Court. Kapikanya sentenced to six years. The offences had been committed between 2007 and 2008. It was the eleventh time Kapikanya had been convicted of a crime in this country. At the time of his arrest, he is understood to have lived at an address on Chatsworth Road, Stretford, Manchester. The semi-detached dwelling is on the more modest side of his property portfolio. When the Daily Mail visited this address, a neighbour said: 'Yes I remember him. I used to see him and coming and going. He would let on the odd time. 'Just very normal. No flash cars or anything. 'I am shocked to hear about the fraud.' But while his victims' lives were turned upside down, having to fight to reclaim legal ownership of their own houses, Kapikanya, had been splashing the 'stolen' cash on a luxury lifestyle. This included gambling away £170,000 in a single night. He owed £100,000 for the hire of luxury cars, and arranged for the transfer of £60,000 into a casino account he held at the Ritz. He used the money to pocket £82,000 on the roulette wheels only to gamble away £8,000 later. Yet another deportation order was made on 3 February 2016 following the 2014 convictions – but he challenged it via the Court of Appeal and his case was returned to a First-Tier Tribunal (FTT). It took another seven years, until January 2023, for the case to be heard at the FTT - 25 years after he was first notified of his liability to deportation - and Kapikanya was allowed to remain based on the 'unduly harsh and very compelling' impact on his son, who was 17 at the time. He was also heard to have had a wife he had married in the time after the 2016 deportation decision. During this time between the 2016 order and the appeal being heard in the FTT, the conman, who had changed his name to Alex May, tried to broker a deal to takeover Notts County FC, acting as an 'advisor', however the bid collapsed. He was then later also exposed for having links with the ex-deputy leader of North East Lincolnshire and Grimsby Town FC majority shareholder John Fenty. Grimsby Live pictured Kapikanya, or May, sitting with Grimsby Town directors during a League Two game against Mansfield. The convicted fraudster was also found to have set up a company with Mr Fenty, with the revelations prompting the deputy council leader to resign from his position. Following the FTT decision, the Home Office took the case to the Upper Tier tribunal in April 2023 and successfully challenged the decision, leading Kapikanya to go to the Court of Appeal. And at the Court of Appeal ruling late last month, the fraudster was finally ordered to be deported by Appeal Court judges Lord Justice Bean, Lord Justice Peter Jackson and Lord Justice Baker. They wrote: '[Kapikanya] has been the subject of five decisions that he should be deported over a period of a quarter of a century. 'The system of appeals and orders for reconsideration has served him well in enabling him to remain in the UK throughout that period.' In the latest hearing, the Appeal Court heard he came to the UK in April 1983, aged 14, to be adopted. The adoption fell through and, the court heard, Kapikanya was 'assimilated into a religious cult'. Now married with a 20-year-old son, at an earlier appeal hearing Kapikanya argued he was in remission from stomach cancer and was suffering from anxiety. He was described as being 'socially and culturally integrated into the United Kingdom' with 'no familial or social links with Zambia'. Barrister Zane Malik KC argued deportation would be 'unduly harsh' on Kapikanya's son. Mr Malik added 'over and above' that the fact Kapikanya has lived in the UK for 42 years also constituted 'very compelling circumstances'. But the panel of judges said Home Secretary Yvette Cooper 'should now, at last, be allowed to put the November 2016 deportation order into effect.' Describing the impact of the property fraud at the time Kapikanya was sentenced, Ben Southam, senior crown prosecutor, said: 'The mortgages and loans were obtained against houses they did not own, and without the knowledge of the real homeowners.' The true owners 'knew nothing about the loans' and were caused 'considerable distress and inconvenience', he added.
The Independent
an hour ago
- The Independent
Shooting in a crowded New York club leaves 3 dead despite record low gun violence
A club shooting in the New York City borough of Brooklyn early Sunday morning has left three people dead and nine others wounded in a year of record-low gun violence in the city. Investigators believe up to four shooters opened fire with multiple weapons at Taste of the City Lounge in Crown Heights after a dispute just before 3:30 a.m. The violence appeared to be gang-related, New York Police Department Commissioner Jessica Tisch told reporters. 'It's a terrible shooting that occurred in the city of New York,' Tisch said at a news briefing, later calling the killings 'a tragic, senseless act of violence.' The crime is the second mass shooting within weeks in New York City during a year that has otherwise seen declining gun violence. On July 29, a man stalked through a Manhattan office tower with a rifle, wounding one person and killing four others. A New York City police officer was among those who died. Mayor Eric Adams said both recent shootings just reinforce 'why we do this work of going after guns off our streets.' 'This is the second within weeks, and we don't want this to turn into a normal course of doing business of violence in our city," he said. Those wounded Sunday were being treated at hospitals for non-life-threatening injuries, Tisch said. The ages of the victims range from 19 to 61. A 19-year-old man died at the scene and two other men -- ages 35 and 27 -- died after being transported to a hospital. Investigators found at least 42 shell casings from 9 mm and .45-caliber weapons and a firearm in a nearby street. Adams said crisis management teams had been mobilized to provide trauma services and facilitate mediation efforts with the victims' friends and families to try to stop any retaliation. He asked members of the public who might have information about the shooting to help investigators by calling NYPD's crime stoppers line, 800-577-TIPS. 'If you were inside the club, if you heard individuals talking about this shooting, if you witnessed someone fleeing the location, every piece of information will allow us to put the puzzle together," Adams said. Tisch said the violence erupted even as the city has reported the lowest number of shootings and shooting victims on record during the first seven months of 2025. 'Something like this is, of course, thank God, an anomaly and it's a terrible thing that happened this morning, but we're going to investigate and get to the bottom of what went down,' she said.
