破產的加密貨幣貸款機構攝氏網絡創始人 Alex Mashinsky 承認欺詐罪

加密貨幣借貸公司攝氏網路 (Celsius Network) 的創始人兼前執行長 Alex Mashinsky 在美國承認兩項詐欺罪。

Alex Mashinsky, the founder and former CEO of cryptocurrency lender Celsius Network, pleaded guilty on Tuesday to two counts of fraud in the United States, admitting he misled customers and manipulated the price of his company’s crypto token.

加密貨幣貸款公司攝氏度網絡(Celsius Network) 的創始人兼前首席執行官亞歷克斯·馬辛斯基(Alex Mashinsky) 週二承認在美國犯下兩項欺詐罪，承認他誤導客戶並操縱公司加密代幣的價格。

Mashinsky, 59, was initially indicted on July 13, 2023, on seven counts of fraud, conspiracy and market manipulation charges. Federal prosecutors in Manhattan said he misled Celsius customers to persuade them to invest, and artificially inflated the value of the company’s proprietary crypto token. He pleaded not guilty later that day.

59 歲的馬辛斯基最初於 2023 年 7 月 13 日被指控犯有七項欺詐、共謀和市場操縱罪。曼哈頓聯邦檢察官表示，他誤導了攝氏客戶以說服他們投資，並人為抬高了該公司專有加密代幣的價值。當天晚些時候，他不認罪。

During a hearing before US District Judge John Koeltl on Tuesday, Mashinsky pleaded guilty to two out of the seven counts he was charged with - commodities fraud and a fraudulent scheme to manipulate the price of CEL, Celsius’s in-house token.

在周二美國地區法官約翰·科爾特爾(John Koeltl) 的聽證會上，馬辛斯基承認了他被指控的七項罪名中的兩項——商品欺詐和操縱CEL（Celsius 內部代幣）價格的詐欺計劃。

In court, Mashinsky admitted to giving Celsius customers “false comfort” by giving an interview in 2021 in which he said Celsius had received approval from regulators for its “Earn” programme, which it had not. The Earn programme allowed users to deposit cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin, Ethereum and Tether and receive weekly interest payments, offering as much as 18 percent annually.

馬辛斯基在法庭上承認，他在2021 年接受采訪時向攝氏度的客戶提供了“虛假的安慰”，他在採訪中表示，攝氏度的“Earn”計劃已獲得監管機構的批准，但實際上並未獲得監管機構的批准。 Earn 計劃允許用戶存入比特幣、以太幣和 Tether 等加密貨幣，並每週收到利息，每年利息高達 18%。

He said he also failed to disclose that he had been selling his holdings of CEL.

他表示，他也沒有透露自己一直在出售所持光大控股的股份。

“I know what I did was wrong, and I want to try to do whatever I can to make it right,” Mashinsky said.

馬辛斯基說：“我知道我做錯了，我想盡我所能糾正錯誤。”

As part of his plea deal with prosecutors, Mashinsky agreed not to appeal any sentence of 30 years or less – the maximum he faces for the two counts.

作為與檢察官達成的認罪協議的一部分，馬辛斯基同意不對任何 30 年或以下的刑期提出上訴——這是他因兩項罪名面臨的最高刑期。

Mashinsky was one of several crypto executives to be charged with fraud after a slump in crypto prices in 2022 caused a number of companies, including the now-bankrupt exchange FTX, to collapse.

2022 年加密貨幣價格暴跌導致包括現已破產的交易所 FTX 在內的多家公司倒閉，Mashinsky 是被指控欺詐的幾名加密貨幣高管之一。

Prices for digital assets like Bitcoin have since surged, in part due to optimism about US President-elect Donald Trump’s expected friendly policies towards cryptocurrency.

此後，比特幣等數位資產的價格飆升，部分原因是人們對美國當選總統唐納德·川普預期對加密貨幣的友好政策持樂觀態度。

Founded in 2017, Celsius filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in the US – which allows a business to continue operating while it works on a plan to repay its creditors – in July 2022 after customers rushed to withdraw deposits as crypto prices fell. Many were initially unable to access their funds. The company exited bankruptcy on January 31, and has pivoted to Bitcoin mining.

成立於2017年的Celsius於2022年7月在美國根據《破產法》第11章申請了破產保護，該保護允許企業在製定償還債權人的計劃的同時繼續運營。存款。許多人最初無法獲得資金。該公司於 1 月 31 日擺脫破產，並轉向比特幣挖礦。

Crypto lenders such as Celsius grew rapidly as crypto prices surged during the COVID pandemic. They promised easy loan access and eye-popping interest rates to depositors, then lent out tokens to institutional investors, hoping to profit from the difference.

隨著新冠疫情期間加密貨幣價格飆升，Celsius 等加密貨幣貸款機構迅速發展。他們向儲戶承諾提供便利的貸款和令人瞠目結舌的利率，然後將代幣借給機構投資者，希望從差價中獲利。

Celsius was among the first in a series of bankruptcies in the cryptocurrency sector in 2022 as token prices cratered amid rising interest rates and stubbornly high inflation. It filed for bankruptcy shortly after Singapore-based crypto hedge fund Three Arrows Capital and rival crypto lender Voyager Digital did so.

由於利率上升和通膨居高不下，代幣價格暴跌，Celsius 是 2022 年加密貨幣領域一系列破產的首批破產者之一。在新加坡加密貨幣對沖基金三箭資本 (Three Arrows Capital) 和競爭對手加密貨幣貸款機構 Voyager Digital 申請破產後不久，該公司申請破產。

Federal prosecutors in Manhattan accused Mashinsky and Celsius’s former chief revenue officer, Roni Cohen-Pavon, of manipulating the market for the company’s crypto token. Cohen-Pavon pleaded guilty in September 2023 and agreed to cooperate with the prosecutors’ investigation.

曼哈頓的聯邦檢察官指控馬辛斯基和攝氏度的前首席營收官羅尼·科恩-帕文操縱該公司的加密代幣市場。科恩-帕文於 2023 年 9 月認罪，並同意配合檢察官調查。

Prosecutors have said Mashinsky also personally reaped approximately $42m in proceeds from selling his holdings of the CEL token.

檢察官表示，馬辛斯基個人還透過出售其持有的 CEL 代幣獲得了約 4,200 萬美元的收益。

Sam Bankman-Fried, the founder of FTX, was convicted of stealing roughly $8bn from the exchange’s customers in November 2023 and sentenced in March to 25 years in prison.

FTX 創辦人 Sam Bankman-Fried 因 2023 年 11 月從該交易所客戶竊取約 80 億美元而被定罪，並於 3 月被判處 25 年監禁。