Latest news with #Mashinsky
Yahoo
09-05-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
British Airways Owner IAG to Buy 53 Boeing and Airbus Planes Despite Market Uncertainty
British Airways owner International Consolidated Airlines said it ordered 53 planes from Boeing and Airbus, marking a significant investment in its fleet despite uncertainty in the sector stemming from trade tensions. The airline group, which also houses Iberia and Vueling among others, said it ordered 32 Boeing 787-10 aircraft for British Airways and 21 Airbus A330-900neo aircraft which it said could be deployed to Iberia or its other companies, Aer Lingus or Level. Volkswagen Recalls ID. Buzz Because the Back Seat Is Too Big Celsius's Mashinsky, Former Crypto High-Roller, Gets 12-Year Prison Sentence With U.K. Deal, U.S. Signals That 10% Tariff on World Is New Baseline McKesson to Spin Off Medical-Surgical Company The 1-800-Flowers Founder Decides It Is Time to 'Fire Myself' The aircraft are due to be delivered between 2028 and 2033, with the orders subject to shareholder approval in June, IAG said Friday. The move comes on the heels of Thursday's framework trade agreement between the U.S. and the U.K., in which both countries agreed to curtail tariffs on some goods, including Rolls-Royce jet engines and parts. IAG didn't disclose financial details of the order, but Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick on Thursday said a British airline, which he didn't name, would announce that it is buying $10 billion of Boeing planes. Chief Executive Officer Lluis Gallego, however, stressed in a post-earnings call with journalists on Friday that the plane orders were negotiated ahead of the news of the trade talks. 'We welcome the agreement but this negotiation process started a long time ago,' Gallego said. As part of the order agreement, British Airways holds the right to purchase up to 10 more U.S.-made Boeing 787s, while IAG can buy up to 13 additional Airbus A330-900neo aircraft, the company said. While U.S. carriers such as American Airlines and Delta Air Lines have recently withdrawn guidance amid declining domestic demand and tariff-related uncertainty, IAG expressed its confidence in its North Atlantic market. Demand for premium cabin space appears to be mitigating softness for U.S. point-of-sale economy seating, IAG said after passenger unit revenue for the region increased by 13%, marking the steepest growth across the whole of the company. Strong overall demand for flights meant that its second-quarter was around 80% booked, with revenue ahead of its year-earlier level. IAG maintained its guidance for 2025, although Gallego said it was yet too early to say for sure how the rest of the year will play out In the first three months, IAG swung to a first-quarter profit of 176 million euros, equivalent to $197.6 million, from a loss of 4 million euros in the same period a year earlier. Revenue rose 9.6% to 7.04 billion euros, with growth in both passenger and cargo income. Write to Pierre Bertrand at Funko Pulls Outlook as Loss Widens, Sales Fall One of Warren Buffett's Last Big Bets Is Souring AI's Threat to Google Just Got Real Bill Gates Plans to Give Away More Than $200 Billion Over 20 Years The WSJ's Jonathan Clements Wants to Leave a Living Legacy Sign in to access your portfolio
Yahoo
09-05-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Celsius CEO Alex Mashinsky sentenced to 12 years in crypto fraud case
Alexander Mashinsky, founder and former CEO of the failed cryptocurrency platform Celsius Network, was sentenced to 12 years in prison on Thursday after pleading guilty to federal fraud charges. A plea agreement had called for up to 30 years. Mashinsky acknowledged illegally manipulating the price of Celsius' proprietary token while secretly selling his own tokens at inflated prices. He made $48 million off the scheme before Celsius filed for bankruptcy in 2022. By that time, Celsius had become one of the largest crypto platforms in the world, with around $25 billion in assets. Customers considered the business a modern bank where they could safely deposit crypto assets and earn interest. But Mashinsky admitted to making statements that gave them false comfort, including suggesting the business had been approved by regulators. Prosecutors said Mashinsky used slogans like 'Unbank Yourself' to persuade customers to invest — then used their deposits to pay for market purchases of the Celsius token to prop up its value. "I accept full responsibility for my actions," Mashinsky told the court in December as he pleaded guilty to two of the seven counts he was charged with. His downfall mirrors that of FTX's Sam Bankman-Fried, who was convicted of stealing around $8 billion from customers and sentenced to 25 years in prison. Other crypto bosses who have been in trouble since the industry's 2022 collapse include Binance's Changpeng Zhao, who was sentenced last year to four months in prison after pleading guilty to charges of enabling money laundering. In January, Do Kwon of Terraform Labs pleaded not guilty to fraud charges. Prosecutors say he was involved in a scheme to deceive investors in order to fraudulently inflate the value of Terraform's stablecoin. Senate Democrats on Thursday stopped a Trump-backed bill to regulate stablecoins, saying it needed stronger provisions for anti-money laundering, foreign issuers and national security. They also worried it could further enrich Trump, who is affiliated with a stablecoin business that could generate tens of millions of dollars a year in revenue for his family and their business partners.
eNCA
09-05-2025
- Business
- eNCA
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.
Yahoo
09-05-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Celsius founder sentenced to 12 years in prison
The founder of cryptocurrency lender Celsius Network was sentenced to 12 years in prison on Thursday. Alex Mashinsky, the company's former CEO, pleaded guilty to securities fraud and commodities fraud in December. Federal prosecutors said Mashinsky artificially boosted the value of Celsius' Cel token and profited more than $48 million as a result. Prosecutors led by U.S. Attorney Jay Clayton also said Mashinsky misled customers about Celsius' safety. 'The case for tokenization and the use of digital assets is strong but it is not a license to deceive,' Clayton, who is based in Manhattan, said in a statement. The sentence includes three years of supervised release and forfeiture of the $48.4 million he made while leading the company. The prosecution had sought a sentence of at least 20 years for Mashinsky, 59, saying it would be 'just punishment' for the billions of dollars in losses he caused for thousands of people. The founder pushed for a one year and one day term, saying he was remorseful. The Hoboken, New Jersey-based Celsius had offered customers as much as 17% interest on some deposits, but as crypto prices plummeted in the summer of 2022, customers rushed to withdraw their cash. Celsius had a $1.19 billion balance sheet deficit when it sought Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in July of that year. The 12-year sentence is one of the longest to arise from the 2022 crypto market meltdown that stemmed from the collapse of the crypto exchange FTX. That company's founder, Sam Bankman-Fried, is serving a 25-year sentence for fraud. He's currently appealing his conviction. In addition to the criminal trial, Mashinsky has had civil lawsuits filed against him by the Securities and Exchange Commission, Commodity Futures Trading Commission, Federal Trade Commission, and New York Attorney General Letitia James. For the latest news, Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.
Epoch Times
09-05-2025
- Business
- Epoch Times
Founder of Crypto Platform Celsius Sentenced to 12 Years in Jail for Fraud
The founder and former CEO of bankrupt cryptocurrency lender Celsius Network has been sentenced to 12 years in prison on fraud charges, the Department of Justice (DOJ) said on May 8. Alexander Mashinsky, 59, of New York, was sentenced by U.S. District Judge John G. Koeltl on May 8 after pleading guilty in December 2024 to commodities fraud and securities fraud. His sentence includes three years of supervised release and a $50,000 fine. Mashinsky was also ordered to forfeit $48.39 million, according to the DOJ's Prosecutors stated that Mashinsky had misled customers about Celsius's proprietary crypto token CEL and artificially inflated its value by buying it on the open market. This manipulation allowed him to profit about $48 million from his own sales of CEL. U.S. Attorney Jay Clayton said that Mashinsky targeted retail investors with promises that their investments were safe on Celsius, while in reality, he used those funds for risky bets. Mashinsky made tens of millions selling his own CEL tokens 'while his customers lost billions,' Clayton added. Related Stories 12/4/2024 7/14/2023 'America's investors deserve better,' Clayton said in a statement. 'The case for tokenization and the use of digital assets is strong, but it is not a license to deceive.' Lawyers for Mashinsky were not immediately available to comment. Celsius was a global cryptocurrency platform that offered investment returns for asset deposits, secured loans, and custody services. The company filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in July 2022. At the sentencing hearing, Assistant U.S. Attorney Allison Nichols cast Mashinsky as a financial predator, saying that he had deceived customers from the start by exaggerating Celsius's ability to build momentum. 'He preyed on hope,' Nichols told the judge, noting that the customers were not going to be made financially whole regardless of the money that could be recovered through bankruptcy proceedings. The defense blamed the collapse of Celsius on a 'cataclysmic downturn' of cryptocurrency markets in May and June of 2022 and said in court papers that Mashinsky's actions were 'never predatory, exploitative, or venal.' According to the DOJ statement, Mashinsky allegedly deceived customers about Celsius's financial position and secretly withdrew $8 million worth of his own non-CEL assets from the company before it collapsed. Hundreds of thousands of Celsius users were left without access to about $4.7 billion in digital assets when the company finally announced that it was halting customer withdrawals in June 2022. Cameron Crewes, who served on a victims' committee, has called for a 'harsh' sentence. Crewes said during the sentencing hearing that hundreds of victims have died before they could see justice served. The Associated Press contributed to this report.
