SEC sues Celsius and accuses Alex Mashinsky over ‘fraudulent’ crypto sales
The US Securities and Exchange Commission has filed a lawsuit against Celsius Network CEO and founder Alex Mashinsky.
The SEC alleges the businessman raised billions of dollars through “unregistered and fraudulent” sales of crypto asset securities.
Allegations filed in New York also state Mashinsky and the company “fraudulently manipulated” the price of the crypto lending platform’s native CEL token.
Celsius filed for bankruptcy a year ago during a major downturn in the value of most cryptocurrencies, as it began freezing customer withdrawals.
Action against Celsius is the latest in a string of legal clampdowns from the SEC which, last month, also filed papers against Binance and Coinbase.