New York Attorney General Letitia James obtained as much as $35 million from disgraced Celsius Network leader Alex Mashinsky alongside a lifetime prohibition against his involvement in the cryptocurrency, commodity, and securities sectors due to accusations that he tricked investors, her department revealed on Friday.
James filed a lawsuit against Mashinsky back in 2023, charging him with deceiving hundreds of thousands of users regarding the digital asset lending enterprise’s stability and trading methods while Celsius engaged in hazardous financial bets and hid deficits.
Mashinsky is presently serving a federal prison term lasting 12 years, whereas creditors of Celsius have reclaimed in excess of $3.4 billion via the enterprise’s liquidation proceedings.
“Alex Mashinsky assured New York residents that his firm was a protected environment to commit their diligently saved capital, only to render them destitute when his perilous ventures failed,” Attorney General James remarked via a published release.
Back in April, the Federal Trade Commission finalized an agreement with Mashinsky featuring a deferred penalty of $4.7 billion, a monetary transfer of $10 million, as well as an 18-year compliance reporting obligation. The accord furthermore prohibits him from participating in the financial services and digital currency sectors moving forward.
During June, the Commodity Futures Trading Commission likewise resolved its matter with the former boss of Celsius, prohibiting Mashinsky from engaging in future anti-fraud breaches while enacting enduring market and registration exclusions.
“I refuse to permit fraudsters to leverage digital assets to exploit naive New Yorkers,” James added further. “We moved decisively to make Mashinsky answer for his actions, and today we are blocking him from the financial markets to ensure he can never exploit backers once more.”
Originally published at https://www.theblock.co/news/regulation/2026-10-09-ny-attorney-general-alex-mashinsky-celsius-35-million-ban-418154.
