US Prosecutors Ask Judge to be Lenient on ex-Celsius Exec, Citing Cooperation

Federal prosecutors are recommending a light sentence for Roni Cohen-Pavon, the former chief revenue officer of defunct cryptocurrency lending platform Celsius.

In a Monday letter filed in the US District Court for the Southern District of New York (SDNY), US Attorney Jay Clayton cited Cohen-Pavon’s “substantial assistance” to the government, by being prepared to testify against former Celsius CEO Alex Mashinsky.

Prosecutors did not request a specific amount of time for the former chief revenue officer to spend in prison, instead asking the judge to consider the sentencing guidelines for an “appropriate sentencing reduction for a defendant who has rendered substantial assistance.”

“As soon as he pled guilty, Cohen-Pavon’s cooperation was public and known to Mashinsky,” said Clayton. “Cohen-Pavon’s cooperation was likely a significant factor in Mashinsky’s decision to plead guilty a few months prior to his January 2025 trial date.”

Excerpt from US Attorney’s letter in Cohen-Pavon sentencing. Source: PACER

Cohen-Pavon pleaded guilty to fraud and conspiracy to commit price manipulation related to Celsius’s CEL token in September 2023 as part of his role in the crypto lending platform’s activities that led to the loss of billions of dollars when the company collapsed in 2022. He had been scheduled to be sentenced before Judge John Koeltl on May 7, but on Monday the judge moved the sentencing hearing to May 13.

Related: Celsius founder Alex Mashinsky settles FTC case with $10M payment

Mashinsky, the public face of Celsius and one of the most prominent figures in the cryptocurrency industry at the time, was sentenced to 12 years in prison in May 2025 after pleading guilty to commodities and securities fraud. Many experts saw the fall of Celsius as intertwined with the 2022 crypto market downturn that resulted in the collapse of several exchanges, including FTX and Voyager Digital.

Cohen-Pavon’s lawyers asked for time served ahead of his sentencing hearing, saying that the former Celsius executive took “full responsibility for his conduct and the harms caused by his participation in the CEL token manipulation scheme.”

No new trial for former FTX CEO

The sentencing hearing, expected to wrap up the criminal cases associated with Celsius, will come after another SDNY federal judge denied former FTX CEO Sam Bankman-Fried’s request for a new trial. Bankman-Fried, also known as SBF, asked for a new trial by claiming that the judge overseeing his 2023 trial, Lewis Kaplan, showed “manifest prejudice” during the proceedings. He still awaits the results of a motion to overturn his conviction and sentence in appellate court.

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