Ex-Celsius CEO Mashinsky Seeks to Vacate 12-Year Sentence

Alex Mashinsky, the former chief executive of cryptocurrency lender Celsius, filed a motion Tuesday in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York asking Judge John Koeltl to vacate the 144-month sentence imposed in May 2025.

Mashinsky submitted the motion without counsel after announcing on May 5 that he would represent himself. He told the court his attorneys had ceased communication and wrote that he had “no choice” but to file the reply directly.

Mashinsky pleaded guilty to commodities and securities fraud for using what the government described as manipulative and deceptive devices. His motion argues ineffective assistance of counsel and contends some evidence was the “fruit of the poisonous tree,” a legal term for evidence tainted by unlawful government conduct.

Attached materials in the filing assert that former FTX CEO Sam Bankman-Fried intended to “destroy Celsius” and attribute some manipulation of the CEL token on the FTX exchange to Bankman-Fried. The motion asks the judge to deny any request by an FTX trust related to the underlying matters.

The filing also includes text messages with Roni Cohen-Pavon, Celsius’s former chief revenue officer, which Mashinsky says show an attempted “hostile takeover” of the platform. Cohen-Pavon and Mashinsky were indicted in July 2023 and later pleaded guilty. Prosecutors credited Cohen-Pavon with substantial assistance; he was sentenced to time served in September 2023 and agreed to pay more than $1 million plus a $40,000 fine.

Celsius filed for bankruptcy in 2022 amid a downturn in the crypto market that included the failure of several major firms. Federal prosecutors brought criminal charges against Celsius executives in 2023 as part of an investigation into alleged misleading practices in the industry.

In the criminal case, Mashinsky was ordered in 2025 to forfeit $48 million. He also agreed to pay $10 million in a settlement with the U.S. Federal Trade Commission tied to a largely suspended $4.72 billion judgment.

The court has received Mashinsky’s papers but has not set a briefing schedule or hearing date. The proceedings will determine whether the allegations about counsel and the origins of evidence provide grounds to reopen or modify his sentence.