Court documents unsealed Tuesday revealed that the banking and real estate assets of former Celsius chief Alex Mashinsky have been ordered frozen as a criminal case against him advances. Mashinsky, who also co-founded the lending platform, was arrested in July on multiple counts including securities fraud and manipulation of the company’s CEL token. His lawyers have described the charges as baseless and he has pleaded not guilty.
New York Judge Jed Rakoff issued an edict on August 16th forbidding financial institutions from selling assets in a number of Goldman Sachs bank accounts held in the name of the Koala LLC company and a residential property in Austin, TX. The order was initially kept secret due to fears that the accounts could be drained before being frozen.
Mashinsky was released on a $40 million bond in July. Prosecutors have said they’ll need six to eight weeks to gather evidence, including from Mashinsky’s online videos in which he’s alleged to have misled investors. Meanwhile, creditors of Celsius, a crypto company toppled in July 2022 as the crypto winter set in, are currently voting on whether to sell assets to buyer consortium Fahrenheit, as part of a plan that could see them finally regain access to some of their holdings.