New York Attorney General (NYAG) Letitia James has reached a settlement that permanently bars Alex Mashinsky, co-founder and former chief executive of the cryptocurrency lending platform Celsius Network, from the securities, commodities, and cryptocurrency industries while securing up to $35 million in conditional payments from him.
The agreement, announced on October 9, 2026, resolves a civil lawsuit filed by James’s office in 2023.
That action accused Mashinsky of defrauding hundreds of thousands of investors—more than 26,000 of them in New York—by misrepresenting Celsius’s safety in order to attract billions of dollars in digital asset deposits.
Celsius subsequently lost hundreds of millions of dollars on high-risk investments that Mashinsky allegedly sought to conceal.
He also failed to register as a salesperson for the platform or as a securities and commodities dealer, violating New York law.
The platform’s eventual collapse left many depositors financially devastated.
Under the terms of the settlement, Mashinsky is permanently prohibited from conducting business in the securities, commodities, and cryptocurrency sectors.
He is already serving a 12-year federal prison sentenc...