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CEO and founder of Celsius Network Alex Mashinsky has been sentenced to 12 years in prison by a US District Court. Celsius Network held about $25 billion in assets at its height, but was one of the many cryptocurrency operations to fail during 2022. Prosecutors were seeking two decades for Mashinsky, claiming he defrauded and misled customers about the status of his company’s CEL token.
“His crimes were not the product of negligence, naivete, or bad luck,” the attorneys said. “They were the result of deliberate, calculated decisions to lie, deceive, and steal in pursuit of personal fortune.”
After an initial not-guilty plea to seven criminal counts, the former cryptocurrency leader to two of the fraud charges in December. As part of his plea deal, Mashinsky agreed not to appeal any sentence of 30 years or less.