Former head of crypto platform Celsius sentenced 12 years
NEW YORK - The founder and former CEO of bankrupt cryptocurrency trading platform Celsius, Alexander Mashinsky, was sentenced Thursday to 12 years in prison on fraud charges.
Mashinsky pleaded guilty last December to securities fraud in a deal that reduced the level of charges he faced.
The sentence comes down nearly three years after the startup's collapse as a cryptocurrency platform, which offered customers the ability to invest in digital currencies, including its own coin, CEL.
According to the indictment, Celsius executives took more than $4 billion in customers' assets to finance the platform's operations, make unsecured loans and invest in high-risk items.
Mashinsky was also accused of manipulating the price of CEL by using customers' funds to purchase the currency, artificially inflating its price.
At its peak in late 2021, Celsius had more than one million clients and held more than $25 billion in assets.
But the company hit hard times in the spring of 2022 as the value of cryptocurrencies plummeted.
Facing deep customer withdrawals, Celsius on June 12, 2022 froze over $4.7 billion in customer accounts before filing for bankruptcy protection a month later.
A progress report published in March found that 93 percent of the frozen assets had been recovered and returned to former Celsius customers.
The 2022 cryptocurrency collapse affected a number of other startups in the field, including FTX, the second-largest crypto exchange that filed for bankruptcy in November 2022.
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Former head of crypto platform Celsius sentenced 12 years
NEW YORK - The founder and former CEO of bankrupt cryptocurrency trading platform Celsius, Alexander Mashinsky, was sentenced Thursday to 12 years in prison on fraud charges. Mashinsky pleaded guilty last December to securities fraud in a deal that reduced the level of charges he faced. The sentence comes down nearly three years after the startup's collapse as a cryptocurrency platform, which offered customers the ability to invest in digital currencies, including its own coin, CEL. According to the indictment, Celsius executives took more than $4 billion in customers' assets to finance the platform's operations, make unsecured loans and invest in high-risk items. Mashinsky was also accused of manipulating the price of CEL by using customers' funds to purchase the currency, artificially inflating its price. At its peak in late 2021, Celsius had more than one million clients and held more than $25 billion in assets. But the company hit hard times in the spring of 2022 as the value of cryptocurrencies plummeted. Facing deep customer withdrawals, Celsius on June 12, 2022 froze over $4.7 billion in customer accounts before filing for bankruptcy protection a month later. A progress report published in March found that 93 percent of the frozen assets had been recovered and returned to former Celsius customers. The 2022 cryptocurrency collapse affected a number of other startups in the field, including FTX, the second-largest crypto exchange that filed for bankruptcy in November 2022.
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Beyond its economic relevance, natural gas is often positioned as a transition fuel for countries to have a viable low-cost energy source to realise their net-zero commitments towards decarbonising their economies by 2050. The net-zero imperative is in line with the objectives of the Paris Climate Agreement which seeks to keep the rise in global temperatures well below 2 degrees Celsius (2°C) as compared to pre-industrial levels. Natural gas burns cleaner than coal and oil-derived products, emitting roughly half as much carbon dioxide (CO 2 ) per unit of electricity generated — making it a lower-carbon option for delivering the same energy output. This has made natural gas an attractive solution for countries seeking to decarbonise and clean up without compromising industrial stability. It is why many countries see it as a necessary part of the energy mix, at least in the interim. 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The envisaged outcome is the development of a new compact for a resilient and well-functioning South African gas sector — one that safeguards industrial competitiveness, job creation, drives inclusive socio-economic development, and ensures that the use of natural gas meaningfully supports, rather than hinders, South Africa's transition to a net-zero economy by 2050.
