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

Roni Cohen-Pavon, the previous chief income officer of the now-bankrupt cryptocurrency lender Celsius Community, has pleaded responsible to U.S. prison prices associated to the collapse of the crypto lending community final yr.

Reuters reported this morning that Cohen-Pavon pleaded responsible to 4 prices, together with manipulating the value of the trade’s token, CEL.

Cohen-Pavon, together with former CEO and co-founder Alex Mashinsky, was charged in July with market manipulation and wire fraud for artificially inflating the worth of CEL, in response to court docket paperwork.

Fallout

The case is a part of a collection of prices towards key figures within the crypto lending sector. Crypto lenders reminiscent of Celsius noticed fast development as crypto costs surged through the COVID-19 pandemic, promising straightforward mortgage entry and memorable rates of interest to depositors and lending tokens to institutional buyers, aiming to revenue from the distinction.

Nevertheless, in 2022, a flurry of buyer withdrawals and a dramatic drop in cryptocurrency costs led to the collapse of crypto lenders like Celsius and FTX as they failed to satisfy these calls for. Mashinsky, nevertheless, reportedly withdrew $10 million from the corporate simply weeks earlier than its chapter.

Mashinsky, who additionally faces civil fraud prices introduced by New York Legal professional Normal Letitia James, has “vehemently” denied the costs and intends to battle them in court docket. He was launched after his arrest in July on a $40 million bail.

Cohen-Pavon and Mashinsky will not be the one high-profile crypto business figures dealing with prison or civil prices. Ex-FTX CEO Sam Bankman-Fried and former Terraform Labs CEO Do Kwon are each dealing with prison prices from the Division of Justice, whereas the U.S. Securities and Change Fee has filed dozens of fits towards numerous actors and tasks, together with main business gamers reminiscent of Binance and Coinbase.

Cohen-Pavon’s sentencing is scheduled for Dec. 11, 2024, marking a big date within the ongoing saga of authorized proceedings towards key figures within the crypto lending business.