Celsius Network CEO, Alex Mashinsky Arrested Over Crypto Fraud Allegations.

Alex Mashinsky, the boss of a cryptocurrency lending company called Celsius Network Limited, has denied doing anything wrong after being arrested in the U.S. He faces seven serious charges including securities fraud, commodities fraud, and wire fraud, says Reuters.

U.S. prosecutorssay Mashinsky tricked customers. According to legal documents, Mashinsky made customers believe that Celsius was a very safe place for their assets, while hiding associated risks.

Also, they say that Mashinsky and Celsius’ ex-chief revenue officer, Roni Cohen-Pavon, manipulated the value of CEL, the company’s own cryptocurrency token. They are accused of buying lots of CEL tokens to falsely boost its price.

It's alleged that Mashinsky made about US$42 million from selling CEL tokens, and Cohen-Pavon made more than US$3.6 million.

Up until June 12, 2022, when Celsius stopped customer withdrawals, Mashinsky told customers that the company was financially strong. He also said the company could meet all withdrawal requests. However, he's accused of taking out about $8 million of his own crypto assets from Celsius by that time.