The founder and former CEO of the failed cryptocurrency lending platform Celsius Network should face 20 years behind bars for lying and self-dealing that cost customers billions of dollars in losses, prosecutors told a judge Tuesday. Alexander Mashinsky, 59, told thousands of customers that their money was safe and secure, leading to investors pouring over $20 billion into Celsius by 2021, they wrote in a submission ahead of a scheduled May 8 sentencing in Manhattan federal court. “They were not,” prosecutors said, noting that Celsius declared bankruptcy in 2022 and acknowledged that it could not return to customers what they had invested.
