The founder and former CEO of the failed cryptocurrency lending platform Celsius Network was arrested Thursday on federal fraud charges alleging that he schemed to defraud customers by misleading them about key aspects of the business.
Alexander Mashinsky is charged with securities, commodities and wire fraud in an indictment unsealed in Manhattan federal court. He is also charged with illegally manipulating the price of Celsius’s proprietary crypto token while secretly selling his own tokens at inflated prices.