Former chief revenue officer at Celsius pleads guilty to four criminal charges

Roni Cohen-Pavon, the erstwhile main gross serviceman of the now-bankrupt cryptocurrency lender Celsius Network, has pleaded blameworthy to U.S. transgression charges related to the illness of the crypto lending web past year.

Reuters reported this greeting that Cohen-Pavon pleaded blameworthy to 4 charges, including manipulating the terms of the exchange’s token, CEL.

Cohen-Pavon, on with erstwhile CEO and co-founder Alex Mashinsky, was charged successful July with marketplace manipulation and ligament fraud for artificially inflating the worth of CEL, according to tribunal documents.

Fallout

The lawsuit is portion of a bid of charges against cardinal figures successful the crypto lending sector. Crypto lenders specified arsenic Celsius saw accelerated maturation arsenic crypto prices surged during the COVID-19 pandemic, promising casual indebtedness entree and singular involvement rates to depositors and lending tokens to organization investors, aiming to nett from the difference.

However, successful 2022, a flurry of lawsuit withdrawals and a melodramatic driblet successful cryptocurrency prices led to the illness of crypto lenders similar Celsius and FTX arsenic they failed to conscionable those demands. Mashinsky, however, reportedly withdrew $10 cardinal from the institution conscionable weeks earlier its bankruptcy.

Mashinsky, who besides faces civil fraud charges brought by New York Attorney General Letitia James, has “vehemently” denied the charges and intends to combat them successful court. He was released aft his apprehension successful July connected a $40 cardinal bail.

Cohen-Pavon and Mashinsky are not the lone high-profile crypto manufacture figures facing transgression oregon civilian charges. Ex-FTX CEO Sam Bankman-Fried and erstwhile Terraform Labs CEO Do Kwon are some facing transgression charges from the Department of Justice, portion the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission has filed dozens of suits against assorted actors and projects, including large manufacture players specified arsenic Binance and Coinbase.

Cohen-Pavon’s sentencing is scheduled for Dec. 11, 2024, marking a important day successful the ongoing saga of ineligible proceedings against cardinal figures successful the crypto lending industry.