Crypto18 August, 20262 min read
US Prosecutors Reject Alex Mashinsky Bid to Overturn Celsius Collapse Sentence
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SDNY prosecutors reject Mashinsky’s bid to vacate his 12-year Celsius fraud sentence as meritless. Prosecution argues petition lacks legal substance and should be denied without further proceedings.
Prosecutors seek denial
US federal prosecutors in the Southern District of New York urged a judge to reject Alex Mashinsky’s bid to overturn his 12-year prison sentence tied to Celsius’s collapse. In a Friday filing, SDNY attorneys James McDonald and Allison Nichols argued Mashinsky’s petition lacks legal substance and should be denied without additional proceedings, with prosecutors saying “without merit.” The dispute centers on Mashinsky’s motion to vacate after he told the court in May he would proceed pro se, and his petition includes claims involving cryptocurrency exchange FTX and his former colleague, Celsius chief revenue officer Roni Cohen-Pavon.
Prosecutors said Mashinsky’s motion is essentially a reprise of issues raised during sentencing, and they pushed back on claims of ineffective assistance of counsel. Mashinsky is serving a May 2025 sentence of 144 months after pleading guilty to commodities and securities fraud connected to “manipulative and deceptive devices” at Celsius.
Sworn declaration dispute
Prosecutors argued Mashinsky failed to meet the threshold for relief and said he had not even submitted a sworn declaration supporting his allegations. In the SDNY response, prosecutors wrote, “Mashinsky has not even submitted a sworn declaration in support of these baseless allegations,” and they said the petition should be denied without a hearing or further fact-finding. The filing also characterizes Mashinsky’s approach as shifting blame to counsel for not pursuing certain arguments, while prosecutors disputed his complaints about the performance of his legal team.
As of Tuesday, the judge overseeing the case had not responded to the government’s submission, according to the reporting. The government’s response also ties the motion’s evidentiary posture to the absence of a sworn declaration, framing it as a key weakness in the petition’s support.
Regulators keep acting
While the criminal case reached sentencing for Mashinsky and Roni Cohen-Pavon, regulators continued parallel actions tied to Celsius leadership and the broader crypto enforcement track. The US Commodity Futures Trading Commission announced in June that Mashinsky was permanently banned from trading in markets under the CFTC’s authority, described as among the last major resolutions tied to Mashinsky and Celsius after the 2022 collapse. At the same time, a civil action by the US Securities and Exchange Commission involving a co-founder was reported as ongoing, and as of July 30 the SEC said its attorneys and Mashinsky were “engaged in settlement discussions.”
“As of July 30, the SEC said its attorneys and Mashinsky were ‘engaged in settlement discussions.’”
The SEC requested 60 days to file a status report, pushing the next checkpoint toward the end of September, while Mashinsky’s criminal motion remains pending before the SDNY judge. At sentencing, Mashinsky was ordered to pay $48 million in forfeiture and agreed to pay $10 million as part of a separate settlement with the US Federal Trade Commission, alongside arrangements described as including a $47 billion judgment that was suspended.