Celsius founder Alex Mashinsky is accused of inflating his company’s crypto token to attract customers|Piaras Ó Mídheach|CC-BY-2.0
Federal authorities arrested Alex Mashinsky, the ex-CEO of bankrupt cryptocurrency Celsius Network, on fraud charges yesterday.
He is accused of misleading customers by artificially increasing the Celsius crypto token’s value, which resulted in a personal profit of $42 million.
The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) sued the crypto company and its founder Thursday. Celsius has agreed to pay $4.7 billion in a settlement with the Federal Trade Commission (FTC).
It is one of the largest settlements in FTC history and highlights the ongoing deceptive practices by Celcius and Mashinsky.