New York Attorney General Letitia James has permanently barred former Celsius Network CEO Alex Mashinsky from the securities, commodities, and crypto industries and secured up to $35 million from him, her office announced Friday.
The payments are conditional. Mashinsky is required to pay New York $25 million if he fails to forfeit a further $10 million in ill-gotten gains to the federal government under his plea agreement, and $10 million if he does not serve his full 12-year prison sentence.
Background on Celsius Collapse
James sued Mashinsky in 2023, accusing him of defrauding hundreds of thousands of investors, including more than 26,000 in New York, by misleading them about the safety of the crypto lending platform, which collapsed in 2022.
The attorney general's investigation found that Mashinsky repeatedly claimed Celsius was safer than a bank while customers' assets were used in high-risk strategies whose losses he concealed. According to the office, one New York resident mortgaged two properties to invest with Celsius, and a disabled veteran lost $36,000 that had taken him nearly a decade to save.
Criminal Penalties and Forfeiture
Mashinsky was sentenced to 12 years in federal prison in May 2025 after pleading guilty to fraud charges. He was arrested in July 2023 and released on $40 million bail ahead of trial. He has asked a court to vacate his sentence.
As part of his penalties, he was ordered to forfeit more than $48 million. The Commodity Futures Trading Commission permanently banned him from trading, and he agreed to a $10 million settlement with the Federal Trade Commission that bars him from the crypto industry.
Creditor Recovery
Celsius creditors received more than $3.4 billion through the company's bankruptcy as of August 2026, according to the attorney general's office. Mashinsky forfeited all of his claims to the bankruptcy proceeds.
