US Attorneys Blast Ex-Celsius CEO’s Motion to Vacate as ‘Without Merit’

An effort by Alex Mashinsky, the former CEO of now-defunct cryptocurrency lending platform Celsius, to convince a federal court to vacate his 12-year sentence for fraud and market manipulation faces pushback from US prosecutors in the Southern District of New York (SDNY).

In a Friday filing, SDNY Attorney James McDonald and Assistant US Attorney Allison Nichols said that the court should deny Mashinsky’s petition to vacate his conviction and sentence, saying that many of his legal arguments were “without merit” and pushing back against claims of ineffective assistance of counsel. 

The former Celsius CEO informed the court in May that he would be proceeding pro se — that is, representing himself in the case — and filed a motion to vacate, including claims about cryptocurrency exchange FTX and his former colleague, the company’s chief revenue officer Roni Cohen-Pavon.

“Mashinsky has not even submitted a sworn declaration in support of these baseless allegations, and his petition should be denied without a hearing or further fact-finding,” said prosecutors, adding:

“[…] He presents a litany of complaints, blaming others for problems at Celsius and rehashing the evidence presented at his sentencing hearing. Though Mashinsky stops short of claiming that he is factually innocent, he blames his lawyers for failing to press certain arguments on his behalf.”

As of Tuesday, the judge overseeing the case had not responded to the federal prosecutors’ filing. Mashinsky was sentenced in May 2025 to 144 months in prison, having pleaded guilty to commodities fraud and securities fraud related to “manipulative and deceptive devices” at Celsius. Cohen-Pavon, who according to the government provided “substantial assistance” to the prosecutors case again Mashinsky, was sentenced to time served in May.

Related: Celsius co-founders Leon, Goldstein to pay FTC over $6M

Celsius was one of a slew of crypto companies to file for bankruptcy in 2022 amid a market downturn starting with the collapse of Terraform Labs. Authorities indicted Mashinsky and Cohen-Pavon in 2023 and both subsequently pleaded guilty. The former CEO was ordered to pay $48 million in forfeiture at sentencing and agreed to pay $10 million as part of a separate settlement with the US Federal Trade Commission.

Mashinsky banned from commodities markets trading

The US Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) announced in June that the former Celsius CEO was permanently banned from trading in markets within the commodities regulator’s purview.

The CFTC case was one of the last against Mashinsky and Celsius to be resolved following the company’s collapse in 2022. However, the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) civil action against the co-founder, first filed in 2023, was still ongoing despite the court reaching a judgment against the platform months after the initial complaint.

As of July 30, the SEC reported that its attorneys and Mashinsky were “engaged in settlement discussions.“ The regulator asked the court for 60 days to file a status report on the matter, pushing any potential resolution to the end of September.

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