According to CoinDesk, bankrupt cryptocurrency lender Celsius Network has filed an adversary complaint against EquitiesFirst Holdings in an attempt to recover assets. The complaint was filed in a bankruptcy court document on Wednesday afternoon. EquitiesFirst Holdings, a private lending platform, owed Celsius approximately $439 million in cash and bitcoin (BTC) as of July 2022. Celsius initially took collateralized loans from the lender in 2019 but failed to return collateral in 2021. The filing named both the company and its CEO, Alexander Christy, as defendants.
The remainder of the document was filed under seal. The docket entry on the bankruptcy page stated that the filing sought injunctive relief and a declaratory judgment, and was related to the recovery of money and property. Celsius was one of the first crypto firms to collapse when the market plummeted last year, filing for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in July 2022. Co-founder and former CEO Alex Mashinsky was arrested earlier this year and now faces multiple charges, including securities fraud and manipulation of the company's CEL token.
Creditors are currently voting on whether to sell assets to the winning bidder consortium Fahrenheit as part of the bankruptcy proceeding, which could potentially allow them to regain access to some of their assets stuck on the platform.
