Update (1000ET): The Federal Trade Commission announced a settlement with bankrupt cryptocurrency platform Celsius Network that will permanently ban it from handling consumers’ assets and charged three former executives with tricking consumers into transferring cryptocurrency onto the platform by falsely promising that deposits would be safe and always available.
“Celsius touted a new business model but engaged in an old-fashioned swindle,” said Samuel Levine, Director of the FTC’s Bureau of Consumer Protection.
“Today’s action banning Celsius from handling people’s money and holding its executives accountable should make clear that emerging technologies are not above the law.”
The proposed settlement with Celsius and its affiliates will permanently ban the companies from offering, marketing, or promoting any product or service that could be used to deposit, exchange, invest, or withdraw any assets.
The companies also agreed to a judgment of $4.7 billion, which will be suspended to permit Celsius to return its remaining assets to consumers in bankruptcy proceedings.
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As CoinTelegraph's Prashant Jha detailed earlier, The U.S. SEC filed a lawsuit against the bankrupt crypto lender on July 13 followed by news reports about the arrest of the former CEO Alex Mashinsky.
The SEC alleges that Celsius and Mashinsky "misrepresented Celsius’s central business model and the risks to investors by claiming that Celsius did not make uncollateralized loans, the company did not engage in risky trading, and the interest paid to investors represented 80% of the company’s revenue."
The news broke out minutes after the United States Securities and Exchange Commission filed a lawsuit against the crypto lender on the same day.
The SEC is demanding that Mashinsky be prohibited from buying, offering, or selling cryptocurrencies, to be disgorged of "all ill-gotten gains in the form of any benefits of any kind derived from the illegal conduct alleged" in the complaint, and for the former CEO pay civil penalties to be determined by the court.
The former CEO was reportedly arrested after a probe into the company’s collapse, reported Bloomberg citing people familiar with the matter.
Celsius Network filed for bankruptcy on July 14 last year.
Mashinsky was found guilty by investigators at the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, which concluded that the former CEO broke numerous U.S. regulations before the company’s implosion in 2022.
The investigation against the troubled crypto lender began after New York Attorney General sued Mashinsky on Jan. 5.
The NYAG alleged that the former CEO misled investors and caused billions of dollars in losses.
I'm suing the former CEO of cryptocurrency platform @CelsiusNetwork for defrauding investors out of billions of dollars.
— NY AG James (@NewYorkStateAG) January 5, 2023
Alex Mashinsky lied to people about the risks of investing in Celsius, hid its deteriorating financial condition, and failed to register in New York.
The trouble for Celsius and its former CEO began in June last year when the crypto lender abruptly suspended withdrawals on the platform.
On June 16, 2022, securities regulators from five different U.S. states opened an investigation into Celsius, and within a month, the platform filed for bankruptcy.
The arrest of Mashinsky and the lawsuit against Celsius comes within months of the SEC’s lawsuits against crypto exchanges Binance and Coinbase.
Celsius network didn’t immediately respond to Cointelegraph’s requests for comments.
