Federal prosecutors in the Southern District of New York are pushing back against former Celsius CEO Alex Mashinsky’s attempt to erase his conviction and 12-year prison sentence tied to fraud and market manipulation at the collapsed crypto lending platform.
In a Friday filing, SDNY Attorney James McDonald and Assistant US Attorney Allison Nichols asked the court to deny Mashinsky’s petition to vacate his conviction and sentence. They said many of his legal arguments were "without merit" and rejected his claims that he had received ineffective assistance of counsel.
Mashinsky told the court in May that he would proceed pro se, meaning he would represent himself. He later filed a motion to vacate that included claims involving crypto exchange FTX and his former colleague Roni Cohen-Pavon, Celsius’ former chief revenue officer.
Prosecutors wrote: "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."
As of Tuesday, the judge overseeing the case had not responded to the filing from federal prosecutors.
Mashinsky was sentenced in May 2025
Mashinsky was sentenced in May 2025 to 144 months in prison after pleading guilty to commodities fraud and securities fraud connected to what the government described as "manipulative and deceptive devices" at Celsius.
Cohen-Pavon, whom the government said provided "substantial assistance" in the case against Mashinsky, was sentenced to time served in May.
At sentencing, Mashinsky was also ordered to pay $48 million in forfeiture. He separately agreed to pay $10 million under a settlement with the US Federal Trade Commission.
Celsius was among a wave of crypto firms that filed for bankruptcy in 2022 during a market downturn that began with the collapse of Terraform Labs. US authorities charged Mashinsky and Cohen-Pavon in 2023, and both later pleaded guilty.
CFTC ban is already in place, SEC case continues
The US Commodity Futures Trading Commission said in June that Mashinsky had been permanently banned from trading in markets that fall under the regulator’s authority.
The CFTC matter was one of the last cases involving Mashinsky and Celsius to be resolved after the company’s 2022 collapse. A separate civil action from the US Securities and Exchange Commission, first filed against the co-founder in 2023, is still open. That remains the case even though the court entered judgment against the platform months after the original complaint.
As of July 30, the SEC said its attorneys and Mashinsky were engaged in settlement discussions. The agency asked the court for 60 days to submit a status report, which would push any possible resolution to the end of September.