He was the founder and former CEO of the Cryptocurrency Linding Company Celsius Network He was sentenced to 12 years in prison After the Prosecutor described it as a predator “won hope” by tempting vulnerable clients to risk their lives for a supposed safe investment.
Alexander Machinsky59, was sentenced by the American provincial judge, John J. Quell, who said that the prison period was great in prison necessary for a person who participated in “very serious” crimes that enabled him to pocket more than $ 45 million while some of his clients lost everything and suffered from severe psychological harm.
CELSIUS announced his bankruptcy in 2022, as it revealed the financially fraught financial bets by Mashinsky with some of the $ 20 billion that thousands of customers poured into the company. He promised that their money would be safe and safe in Celsius, which put herself as a bank in the modern era where the encryption assets can gain benefit.
The defense blamed Silsius’s collapse for a “catastrophic shrinkage” of encrypted currency markets in May and June of 2022 and said in the papers of the court that “Machinsky’s actions were not predatory, exploitative or Vinci.
But American lawyer Alison Nichols casts him as a financial animal, on Thursday that Machinski had deceived the customers from the beginning by exaggerating the ability of Kelceos to build momentum.
She said, “Hope has emerged.” “Machinsky knew exactly what he was doing – selling these people hoping.”
She said that customers will not be completely financially regardless of the money that can be recovered through bankruptcy procedures.
Before he was sentenced to him, Machinsky moved away several times as he apologized to customers and pointed to his difficult past as his family managed to leave a small Ukrainian town in the former Soviet Union with the help of the United States when he was 7 years old.
The family moved to Israel, where Machinsky served three years in the Israeli Defense Forces as a fighter pilot before he came to America.
“He did not aim to harm anyone here after all this country for me.”
He said, “I am really sorry”, describing himself as a person “who has nothing to do.”
When he acknowledged that he was guilty in December, Machinsky admitted to misleading customers between 2018 and 2022 by safely promising their investments even when he manufactured Malaysius profitability and put customer money at the mercy of unoccupied loans and risky market bets.
His lawyer, Mark Mukassi, said that the victim’s effect data to the court were “somewhat brutal” towards his client.
He said: “We hear the severity of their pain.” “Our sympathy for everyone.”
Many victims occur in the verdict.
Cameron Cruz, who works for the victims committee, called for a “harsh punishment”, saying that nearly 250 victims died before they could see justice or compensate enough for losses.
“Many people have been eliminated,” he said.
In a statement, US lawyer Jay Clayton said Machinski “made tens of millions of dollars while he lost his clients billions of dollars.”
He added: “American investors deserve better. The issue of the distinctive symbol and the use of digital assets are strong, but it is not a license to deceive. The rules against fraud are still applied.”
This story was originally shown on Fortune.com
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