Alex Mashinsky, the founder of bankrupt cryptocurrency lender Celsius Network, said on Tuesday he intends to plead guilty to two counts of fraud.
The former CEO, 59, was indicted in July last year on seven counts of fraud, conspiracy and market manipulation charges. Federal prosecutors in Manhattan said he misled customers of Celsius to persuade them to invest, and artificially inflated the value of his company’s proprietary crypto token. He pleaded not guilty later that day.
US district judge John Koeltl in November denied a motion by Mashinsky to dismiss two criminal counts ahead of his trial, which had been slated for 28 January.
On Tuesday, during a hearing before Koeltl, Mashinsky said he agreed to plead guilty to two out of the seven counts he was initially charged with: commodities fraud, and a fraudulent scheme to manipulate the price of CEL, Celsius’ in-house token.
Mashinsky was one of several crypto moguls to be charged…
