Alexei Mashinsky's assets were frozen by a court decision in August
Date: 2023-09-06 Author: Karina Ziganova Categories: CRYPTO PAYMENTS, BUSINESS
The restraining order was issued on August 16, 2023 by a federal court in New York following the indictment of the former CEO of bankrupt cryptocurrency company Celsius Network, Alexander Mashinsky, who previously served as CEO. His assets were frozen and all transactions with them were suspended.
On September 5, when separate documents were printed and an asset freeze order was issued, they became public.
The court order, involving several bank accounts and real estate holding Mashinsky's property, is part of an ongoing investigation into possible wrongdoing by the former CEO or his company. The court established a possible reason why Mashinsky's property is still under arrest and subject to confiscation. The property is associated with proceeds from securities fraud or electronic withdrawal of money from market manipulation, money laundering.
The brief course of this process coincides with a chain of events that began in July 2023 when Mashinsky was arrested on fraud charges brought by the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), accusing him, along with Celsius, of attempting to manipulate the value of their CEL cryptocurrency.
Retreat from grace
Last year, the crypto lending platform Celsius went bankrupt, and amid a downturn in the market, this led to the collapse of several other companies associated with the coin. In order to stabilize its financial situation, in July 2023, the bankruptcy court allowed Celsius to convert its assets from altcoins (bitcoins) and Ethereum / ETH based on its own bitcoins or BTC.
Mashinsky, as he himself says: "absolutely denies" the charges against him. When Mashinsky was arrested and later released on $40 million bail, his legal representative, Jonathan Oring, told the media that the client vehemently denied all charges. While officially maintaining his innocence, Mashinsky plans to defend his beliefs in court and will be very active in “defending” the reputation of his contribution to the crypto sector.
The arrest of Mashinsky and the subsequent freezing of his assets are a natural result of the strengthening of the fight against fraud in the crypto industry by law enforcement regulators, as well as increased control over the activities of some exchanges. These crackdowns are being carried out in response to the high-profile collapses of the sector and the growing public concern about the laws filed by the regulators.
