Former Celsius CEO may face 115 years in prison, seeking court approval for six former employees to testify

Alex Mashinsky, former CEO of crypto lending platform Celsius, could face up to 115 years in prison. His legal team filed a memorandum with the New York District Court last Friday, requesting that six former Celsius employees be allowed to testify in his criminal trial, including executives such as the company's former chief financial officer and chief revenue officer, some of whom live outside the United States. The lawyers claimed in the memorandum that Mashinsky had no intention of harming anyone, "As CEO of Celsius, Mashinsky relied on information provided by the experienced Celsius professional team around him," "The stakes are high," the lawyers later added, "The government has informed the defense that its 'current position' is that the Sentencing Guidelines require a sentence of 115 years in prison for Mashinsky." Celsius filed for bankruptcy in 2022 and was shut down earlier this year. In July 2023, Mashinsky was arrested on suspicion of defrauding customers and misleading them about Celsius' profitability. The U.S. SEC accused Celsius and Mashinsky of raising billions of dollars through fraudulent and unregistered cryptocurrency sales, repeatedly misrepresenting Celsius’ financial condition to investors, and manipulating the price of the company’s native token CEL. (The Block)