Judge John Koeltl has ordered Alex Mashinsky and the prosecutors to appear in court on November 13 to address the former Celsius CEO’s motion to dismiss charges of fraud and market manipulation.
Mashinsky Returns to Court
Alex Mashinsky, the former CEO of the cryptocurrency platform Celsius, will appear in a New York courtroom for the first time in months. The hearing is related to his motion to dismiss the fraud charges filed after his arrest.
In a court filing on October 23, Judge John Koeltl of the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York ordered Mashinsky and the prosecutors to appear in court on November 13 to “preserve testimony” and address his motion to dismiss certain charges in the indictment. In January, Mashinsky’s legal team filed motions to dismiss charges related to commodity fraud and market manipulation.
Charges Against Mashinsky
In July 2023, Mashinsky was arrested and charged with seven criminal offenses. Prosecutors claim that the former Celsius CEO, along with former Chief Revenue Officer Roni Cohen-Pavon, illegally manipulated the price of the platform’s token, CEL, and allegedly misled users about the nature of their investments.
Court records show that Mashinsky has not appeared in person at a court hearing since February. In addition to the November 13 hearing, Judge Koeltl has scheduled a pretrial conference for January 16, with the trial expected to begin on January 28.
Role of Cohen-Pavon
After his arrest, Cohen-Pavon had limited travel between New York and Israel but was granted permission to attend the Token2049 conference in Singapore in September. While he initially pleaded not guilty to all charges, he later changed his plea to guilty. Judge Koeltl is expected to sentence Cohen-Pavon on December 11.
Preserving Witness Testimonies
Mashinsky, who resigned as Celsius CEO in September 2022, reportedly earned about $42 million from token sales. He maintains his innocence on all charges, which include securities fraud, commodity fraud, conspiracy to manipulate the price of CEL, a fraudulent scheme to manipulate CEL’s price, market manipulation of the CEL token, and bank fraud related to price manipulation.
The November 13 court appearance will likely address Mashinsky’s September filing, in which he sought to “preserve the testimony of six key witnesses residing outside the United States,” including Cohen-Pavon.
Mashinsky’s lawyers argue that five of the six witnesses ignored his explicit instructions to generate revenue by consistently selling CEL tokens on the market and instead purchased excess CEL tokens on the FTX exchange throughout 2021.
Bankruptcy and Civil Cases
Celsius filed for bankruptcy in the U.S. in July 2022 but began repaying its creditors in 2024. In addition to the criminal charges, Mashinsky faces several civil lawsuits brought by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC).
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