In a bolt from the blue, former CEO of Celsius, Alex Mashinsky, entwined in an entanglement of legal issues, is pushing for the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) to let go of its case against him. Rising from the ashes of Celsius’s bankruptcy crisis, Mashinsky was detained in July as a part of a joint operation by the FTC, the Department of Justice, and marketplace regulators.
Mashinksy is indictable for multiple fraud counts and alleged price tampering of the CEL token. Yet, his defense force contest these allegations, brushing them off as “baseless”. The legal team avers that the FTC’s accusations fail to present the prerequisite components to substantiate a fraudulent activity claim.
The urgency for the court to not just discard the fraud allegations but also the FTC’s claims that Mashinksy misled investors is resounding. His lawyers maintain that the FTC’s indictments do not fulfill the criteria for a case under the Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act. This 1999 legislation dictates that to deceitfully source client information from a financial entity, consciously counterfeit statements are mandatory.
Not left in the dust, Hanoch “Nuke” Goldstein, the ex-Chief Technology Officer of Celsius, is also tussling the charges. The FTC appears to be convicting him on the basis that he retweeted a blog post published by Celsius, an action he opines is misinterpreted as collaboration. Goldstein contends that the FTC is unduly making him liable due to association with other executives of Celsius.
Simultaneously, U.S. Attorney Damian Williams is appealing the court to momentarily suspend the FTC proceedings. This is to prevent biasing the concurrently running criminal case against Mashinsky. Departing from his position as CEO in September 2022, Mashinksy was liberated on a whopping $40 million bond amidst the bankruptcy proceedings.
However, his financial circumstances seem to be destabilizing further. His banking and real estate assets have been frozen as a result of a recent court order. Thus, the lines are drawn not only for Mashinksy and his former colleagues but also for other market entities. How the court rulings will impact the operations of other fintech companies in the arena is something we’ll have to wait and see.
Source: Cryptonews
