Ex Celsius CEO Alex Mashinsky to Return to Court on Nov. 13

Former CEO of crypto platform Celsius, Alex Mashinsky, will return to a New York courtroom on November 13, for the first time in months for his motion to dismiss charges.

In an October 23 filing with the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York, Judge John Koeltl instructed Mashinsky and the prosecutors to return to “preserve testimony” and discuss Mashinsky request to dismiss two specific charges in the indictment.

Judge John Koeltl

Earlier this year, Mashinsky’s legal team initially submitted motions to dismiss charges of commodities fraud and market manipulation. Mashinsky was first arrested and charged with seven felony counts, last year in July. Investigators had accused the former CEO and former Chief Revenue Officer Roni Cohen-Pavon for illicitly manipulating the price of Celsius’s native token, CEL. Mashinsky was also accused of misleading users about the nature of their investments using which he allegedly earned nearly $42 million in profits from sales.

In addition to the Nov. 13 hearing, Judge Koeltl has ordered the parties to attend a pretrial conference on January 16 as Mashinsky’s jury trial will start in January. 28. 

Formerly, Mashinsky had pleaded not guilty to all charges, including securities fraud, commodities fraud, wire fraud, conspiracy to manipulate the price of CEL, fraudulent scheme to manipulate the price of CEL, market manipulation of the CEL token, and wire fraud related to manipulation of the CEL token.

The upcoming court hearing might also address the September filing from Mashinsky, urging to preserve the testimony of six material witnesses who reside outside US including Cohen-Pavon.

Mashinsky’s lawyers claim that five of the six witnesses they intend to call “ignored or disregarded [his] direct orders to generate revenue by consistently selling CEL tokens, and instead, bought excess CEL tokens on the FTX exchange throughout 2021”.

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