U.S. prosecutors submitted over 200 victim statements in the case against former Celsius CEO.

Source: Cointelegraph Original text: "U.S. prosecutors submit over 200 victim statements in former Celsius CEO case"

U.S. federal prosecutors submitted statements from hundreds of victims in the case against the late founder and former CEO of the crypto lending platform Celsius Network, Alex Mashinsky.

Jay Clayton, the acting U.S. Attorney for Manhattan, stated in a letter to the Manhattan federal court on April 23 that he shared "over 200 victim impact statements" collected by his office.

These statements total 418 pages and come from users of Celsius, some of whom are identified by name while others are only identified by initials. They detail the impact of the company's collapse on their lives and the funds they lost as a result.

Some statements mention that the victims said they entrusted their lifelong savings to Celsius, trusting Mashinsky's promises, believing that the platform was safe.

Other statements indicated that the victims felt disappointed with the amounts returned to them in the company's bankruptcy proceedings, with many stating that the amounts they received were less than what they had invested in the platform.

Before the collapse of Celsius Network, the platform allowed users to deposit cryptocurrencies to earn yields and provided loans secured by cryptocurrencies. In mid-2022, as the crypto market crashed, Celsius suspended withdrawals and filed for bankruptcy in July of the same year.

The U.S. Department of Justice filed seven charges against Mashinsky in July 2023, but he reached a plea agreement and admitted to charges of commodities and securities fraud in December. If the two charges are sentenced to concurrent terms, the maximum sentence is 30 years in prison.

Some people seek leniency for Mashinsky.

Many statements reviewed by Cointelegraph call for the court to impose the maximum possible sentence on Mashinsky, but at least two statements urge the court to impose a lighter sentence on this convicted fraudster.

One of the statements was written by a person who claims to be "Mike", who believes that further punishment of Mashinsky would be "excessive". He asserts, without evidence, that the founder of Celsius is "a coordinated attack target of Sam Bankman-Fried", the former CEO of the collapsed FTX cryptocurrency exchange, and a convicted fraudster.

Another statement, written by Artur Abreu, said that Mashinsky should have received leniency because he had already shown remorse and that macroeconomic factors at the time largely contributed to the collapse of Celsius.

Mashinsky will be sentenced on May 8, and in the sentencing document dated April 17, he argued that he should not be sentenced to more than one year and one day in prison, or 366 days in prison, because he "had real good intentions and had an unblemished record prior."

The government's sentencing document is scheduled to be submitted on April 24.

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