Bitcoin Forum

Former Celsius CEO Alex Mashinsky reportedly arrested
https://cointelegraph.com/news/celsius-ceo-alex-mashinsky-arrested

There are a few topics about Celsius and this PoS but I think that if the reports are confirmed, we need a topic for the celebration


Bloomberg source (might be paywalled)
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2023-07-13/sec-files-lawsuit-against-celsius-network-alex-mashinsky

Now, with a bit of luck, taking into account Celsius collapsed in June and FTX in November, then in a few months we might have another good piece of news.
So Mashinsky down, Do Kwon arrested, SBF close to prison time, when CZ?  ;D

And... Just in: It looks like they got fined $4.7 billion and also got banned from trading by the Federal trade comission[1]. I'm guessing that now, any hope of users recovering their funds has been lost good?

[1] https://cointelegraph.com/news/celsius-network-fined-billions-by-ftc

https://www.ftc.gov/news-events/news/press-releases/2023/07/ftc-reaches-settlement-crypto-platform-celsius-network-charges-former-executives-duping-consumers


Full doc here:
https://www.ftc.gov/system/files/ftc_gov/pdf/2223137celsiusnetworkorder.pdf

I assume this is in order to freeze any possible assets Celsius might have? Wild guess here!

A company like Celsius with multiple assets like mining, lending, network etc is vulnerable and difficult to control, I think that's one of the reasons they had to go bankrupt. How will they control all the assets mentioned on the doc, it's numerous, if they focused on two; lending and mining it could have been better and easier for them to withstand and trace any pipelined problem. Normally a business will grow, and sooner it'll begin to drop in value, that way Celsius would have been introducing other assets gradually other than managing all of them at a go. It's wild that, while cryptocurrency based businesses are getting penalized, the market keeps going, a sign that only a few of this businesses should be in existence. Because if SEC can't harm cryptocurrency they'll focus mainly on crypto based businesses.

Do you really want CZ to get arrested? For what??

If the cryptocurrency is easily accessible in many parts of the world, is because of Binance. I don't know any other crypto exchange in the world who had done such a good job in making cryptocurrency easily available to a large portion of the population. Is this his crime?

Decentralized vs centralized debate doesn't always work when it comes to ground reality. Cryptocurrency is a complex stuff and still a huge amount of crypto users are not very comfortable in using DEX. Also in P2P trade, users prefer to use CEX because of the KYC requirements and verifications involved in the process.

Now sure why you want CZ to get arrested! 

I believe that was partly a joke, but you cannot rule it out from happening. Before ftx, Celsius and Luna Collapsed, was there any reason to arrest sbf, Alex Mashinsky and Do Kwon? That was because their shady activities were hidden and it only became exposed when their platform bit the dust.
Ftx was also a big exchange doing the same thing, before it was discovered that sbf was misappropriating the funds of his customers. BTC will be accessible with or without Binance; though i am not saying that cz is going to be arrested, neither am i saying that Binance is going to collapse, but it is clear that cz does too many shady stuffs and maybe it might get him and Binance in trouble someday, and people who keep their funds in Binance should better be prepared.
Yes, users prefer centralized exchanges because of liquidity, 'convenience' and faster tx process, that's why they don't mind passing kyc on anti-privacy cex platforms, but it does not guarantee that funds are safu because they can be confiscated by the exchange because they have the keys. A good decentralized exchange like Bisq may not give users the advantages i just mentioned, but it gives them control, security and privacy.

Woah there. So you're just going to let Su Zhu and Kyle Davies walk away?  :P

All scammers!
And to be honest, none of these people are in prison yet. Do Kwon and SBF are vacationing in good homes and if they start talking we will learn a lot of interesting facts about fraud and bribery, so these cases will last a very long time until they are forgotten.

Do you mean trading in general? As far as I'm aware, CEX is not really the only option for P2P. If you're referring to Binance P2P and something similar, I guess they do offer some convenience but it is not a deal breaker if a user is looking for a P2P transaction. There are other ways to make sure you don't get scammed such as using a multi-sig wallet as an escrow and so on. CMIIW.

I won't be surprised if they charge him with similar issues like inappropriate funds management and so on. The unfortunate news is that they have to 'wait' for the company to go bankrupt before giving any charge. Do they have no data before? It would be cool if any abuse is prevented for the users imo.

Because he's the most anti-bitcoin person with some kind of power in the Cryto universe.
Because he is lying continuously about his license, about his #safu fund, about everything he can, he will lie he is fleeing a country and threating journalists with lawsuits right on his plane.
Because he is doing everything he can to hurt Bitcoin, by asking for higher fees for segwit, for asking enormous fees for the real chain, for promoting his own tokenized version, for not thinking a second before doing anything to hurt it, like the bullshit about halting withdrawals during the last mempool clog, like saying they should rewrite the chain to get hi stolen funds back, everything!


BS!. Everywhere you go there is an alternative to Binance, Bitcoin did great even in 2017 when Binance was just launched so let's stop praising this pos!


No, it was not!


They ignored subpoenas in the bankrupcies case, now it's up to an investigation into that, they think that outside US jurisdiction and US extradition treaty, there is a safe haven, and they are far more likely to end up in prison when the wheels start moving than even SBF.
I'm a little concerned about them because unlike the others they are not only scammers but also stupid ones!

Very true indeed! They all are known for their scams and still no body is going to do anything against them. They are enjoying their lives even after destroying the lives of many innocent users which invested their money into those shady businesses.

Tera Luna was the worst disaster of the year and that dam thing caused huge liquidations within a week only. Do Kwon should be charged with so sanctions but still no good action against that culprit. The system is known to punish poor people only and the ones with huge sums of black money will never be punished.

In p2p trading, bank transfers are involved. Unless you share your bank details to the buyer, he won't be able to transfer the fund. And the moment you provide your bank details, your privacy is gone. So in DEX environment, P2P trading has no privacy. Personally, I will prefer to receive funds from someone verified by the exchange rather than someone random over the internet. DEX is good for coin swapping or other stuffs, not for P2P for sure!


Just one reaction -  :o

They have also got fined for staggering $4.7 billion USD. This is a big fine lol.

when CZ?  Bro why do we even want the biggest Crypto exchange to collapse? What it has done wrong to you? I mean it is a great platform for beginners to buy their first Crypto.
Collapse of Binance will remove the whole trust of Crypto and I don't understand why you want that to happen. Million dollars are being invested by Mining companies and other ventures into crypto, Web3 is growing and here some people on this forum just want Binance to shut down. Crazy.

Unlike these guys, CZ is not a criminal. He didn't steal anyone's money and run away with it. All he did, he refused to ban Russian users when the US requested it. He immediately got some ridiculous claims of breaking some rules in the US. But you know what? Binance can close the US business completely and still survive it. Have you heard about "too big to fail"?

Well, good you said it yourself, "you are only a criminal if you get caught", so let's wait until CZ get caught before we declare him a criminal, for now, he is just like any of us, a crypto enthusiasts doing his part in promoting the industry as well as adoption through his chains of crypto focused businesses..

Like it or not, crypto through binance (CZ) have helped hundreds of people, if not thousands, make their first ever million dollars, and still, the man and the company still going strong, though not without challenges, which is a normal thing for any business that has become big with customers worldwide.

I agree with your statements, the CZ is not yet been proven guilty for his wrongdoings and all those allegations are useless if they can't show the true evidence that could prove that CZ has really done those fishy activities. The platform basically the Binance exchange has been helping a lot of crypto users, and even newbies can use that exchange whiteout any difficulty. 

I will not say that Binance is behind the growth of Bitcoin, but we still can't underestimate the role it has played for the crypto world. I'm not really sure that all those allegations against CZ are right or not, but I also believe that the guy is a Bitcoin enthusiast and a very sharp minded business man. I'm not going to favor him in anyway, but I can surely say that the Binance is a pretty useful platform for many users as of now.

AFAIK, He is pertaining to CZ being anti-bitcoin and not Binance particularly since Binance can become Bitcoin friendly exchange if the owner is Bitcoin friendly itself. I understand the hate on CZ because I think the same way. CZ is full of lies and using social media including his sock puppet influencers to hype his exchange and to mind condition people to only believe with them. CZ is full of lies and self interest, Binance keep changing HQ location because they doesn't want to be fully regulate since they are hiding dirt on their exchange.

Post below is Stompix PoV to CZ.

Yeah, i have heard about it, and some people said the same thing about the exchanges that have collapsed before, so if you believe in this, i'm sorry there's nothing else i can tell you. No exchange is not too big to fail, not even Binance.
What you should share with your trading peer is just your name and account number, that is not enough to lose your privacy in my honest opnion, if you lose your privacy that way, you have lost your privacy for every incoming transaction into your bank account, because that is the information you must provide to receive funds into your account. This is different from submitting kyc on Binance where you may be required to provide so many info about yourself including your ID card, passport, selfie photo, etc, and they can request for additional data at anytime, and the worst part is this data can be leaked to the dark web anytime or be shipped to blockchain analysis companies or the government, that's how to lose privacy.

There's no individual that didn't have a dark side but I honestly don't want CZ to arrest and I guess it's because of how he give to charity and also into something new into CEX.
I said this because 97% of all crypto project (including CEX) that was in existence since 2018 was guilty of false and misleading activities. I could remember in the year 2017 when most CEXs provide false market caps and trading volumes and from what I read the US SEC arrested  Alex Mashinsky due to a complaint from almost the inception of Celsius in 2018 and their earn interest program.

I didn't follow the Celsius story actively but from the little I read at that time, it was all pains and sad stories from people who were victims. Every true Bitcoin believer should be glad that justice has been served. Although I doubt if the victims will get their money back , they will be happy that the person who caused them so much pain and suffering is not walking free and will face the full wrath of the law. I think that Celsius CEO Alex Mashinsky shouldn't be the only arrested because he didn't work alone. His other executives should also be arrested so that they can all face the music

And I say this with all boldness that  the long arm of the law will catch up with other Celsius like organizations very soon.

ALL this battle and hate against binance and CZ are really not necessarily to be honest, the man CZ has built a business, and it is his right to promote/hype his business in what ever way he deems it fit, as long as it is within the legal framework, as individuals, it is up to us to buy in on his hype of just ignore..

Anyone who feels CZ is not doing things right, or as it should, then get up, build your own crypto exchange and get it to become as big as binance, then do in your right way, those things you feel CZ is doing wrong.

In the last mempool clog, Binance wasn't the only exchange that halted bitcoin withdrawal on the main chain, several hundred of exchanges also did same, even down to the smallest of exchanges, why has that if Binance become a problem? If CZ asked customers to use the tokenized version of bitcoin on binance smart chain, that does not make him an anti-bitcoin for christ sake, it's just a suggestion which as individuals again, we can take or leave, he never made it mandatory for customers to use the tokenized version of bitcoin on BSC, all this accusations are baseless without evidences..

Only the person wearing the shoe knows where it pinches, you never can know what the man is going through to keep binance running until you try to build the next binance - lets learn to celebrate good people rather than hate them, CZ has not been convicted of any crime, and until he is convicted, he remains one of the few in my good book.

Bullshit! Every government, every bank in the world is way more anti-bitcoin than CZ. They are the real opposition, real foes of Bitcoin. Governments, media, banks have been lying to you for years, decades, even centuries but CZ is to blame, right? In fact, they're trying to make you believe CZ is guilty in all the deadly sins to distract your attention from their own crimes.

To play devil's advocate, he said "with some power in crypto". CZ is a shitcoin pumper, running a crypto casino, where you can pay him to list (pump) your coin and give you an opportunity to sell everything to new "investors" (simpletons) who think that if a coin is listed it means it's legit. I don't believe in his safu fund and I don't like how he pushes shitcoins to people who are new to crypto. A lot of the coins that were once listed by CZ are now gone.

Did you mean the exchange that has fled a hundred countries and can't manage to get a real license anywhere?
Do I have to mention the headquarters saga again and again? Hong Kong, Singapore, Japan, Malta, we don't want to tell you where?


No, that's what spineless plebs have as options!
I have the right to say fuck you to everyone, I have the right to dislike, criticize and send to whatever hole I deem fit at that moment!
What you're describing is a kissing boot attitude that will make sure forever you're just going to be a yes man and your price is half a penny!


I assume you have data and the name of these at least 200 exchanges that did so, right?
You're not pulling numbers out of you know what, right?

Old story but still has value because exchanges, including Binance have yet changed their apporaches.

They 'stole' bitcoin from users months and years and make their steal legit but then if things are worse with network and mempools, they don't support users but halt withdrawals or charge their users more.

Exchanges get profit from users' withdrawal fees (https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=5306935.msg56023103#msg56023103).

I wonder why the OP wants CZ arrested. What offense has he committed?
As for the arrest of the former Celsius CEO, Alex Mashinky, I am sure that's a very exciting news. I really wish victim can recover at least get some percentage of their lost funds.

CZ can keep asking whatever he wants, that doesn't mean he's going to get it. And I'm pretty sure he won't. Not sure if some people over here are just jealous or if it's something else because hoping that the biggest crypto exchange will fail because you don't like the guy behind it doesn't look like a smart move to me. And let's not talk about 2017, when in 10 days we went up $10k, the most manipulated crypto market movement ever probably. Thanks to that we got a bear market for years...

I don't know why people are so emotionally attached to some "important" people from the crypto world as if it depends on them whether there will be Bitcoin tomorrow or not (and that's all that matters)? I honestly don't care if CZ and his company last another hundred years or if they will fail tomorrow, but I am aware that many see in him some kind of crypto messiah who is struggling with the system and enabling anyone who wants to free themselves from the shackles of financial slavery.

I and some others like OP do not see it that way and we have the full right to express our opinion, and the forum exists to discuss and exchange opinions. All those CEOs who have messed up badly in recent years have never cared about you, me or anyone other than themselves and a narrow circle of people around them - don't think that those who are not yet behind bars have different intentions.

So what? Have you ever seen an ethical billionaire? Caring about other people's wealth? You seriously think they exist? Like Elon Musk gives a damn about Tesla stockholders and owners? So, he can pump shitcoins (although he's not doing it directly just listing them on his exchange) or do whatever else he wants - unless he takes your money and runs he is not a criminal. Frankly, shitcoin investors deserve to be scammed. If you believe anything listed on Binance is legit you also believe Nigerian princes, dying billionaires etc etc etc

So you agree that CZ doesn't care about BTC, or his customers, but only about how he can make money for himself, but here you are defending him with all you've got. It is obvious that cz is as shady as fuck, and is as guilty as those whose platforms have collapse because of misappropriation of customers' money. The message is this, Binance may not bite the dust now, but they are not too big to fail and it is possible that they will someday, so the people who believe so much in him to use his platform for storing their funds should be prepared.

In this case it looks like everyone is corrupt when it comes to money, I don't expect anything from centralized exchanges than this though, but I will like to know why you said CZ is shady as fuck, if this is true do you have any prove you can show us? CZ was the one that let the cat out of the bag when FTX was doing lots of shit, CZ and FTX we're once close and when the secret got out he wanted to take over FTX to save the space but on preparing to sign the deal they noticed that the damage is beyond repair, I say I big thanks to him, though I am not keeping any money on the exchange.

Binance is not too big to fail, nothing is too big to fail in this world but I wouldn't dare wish for a company to fail because they might be shady or something, I would rather face my own journey and want the best for myself, I will never wish any one to go down unless I caught them in the act of doing illegal things or cheating the innocents to make money.

Yes, I basically agree. But why should he? He's a billionaire, a whale, why would he care? All billionaires are douchebags to some extent. But at the same time, I have a lot of respect for him and we can't deny that:
- CZ and Binance were early, CZ saw the opportunity and believed in Bitcoin. He basically invested his own money and took the risk.
- they did and keep doing a great job of promoting Bitcoin and crypto, investing boatloads of money in marketing
- they launched the Binance card which helps people live off Bitcoin and spend their Bitcoin earnings
and I could go on and on and on...
 

It's good when people who are reasonably suspected of wrongdoing regarding their customers are arrested. Cases of alleged bankruptcies should be investigated, and people who robbed others should be punished. That kind of accountability is positive to show that there's a difference between legitimate crypto businesses and crimes. But I don't think I want the CEO of Binance to be next because it's a serious exchange that tries to be fair to the customers and comply with regulations. If Binance falls, I think it will do more damage than good because if even this exchange is shady, a question arises whether crypto exchanges can be legit at all.

I was pretty surprised that he was traveling around and appearing at conferences as if nothing happened. Rubbing shoulders with people he had stolen hundreds of thousands of dollars from. Even more surprising is that nobody tried to take his head off. I don’t think I would be able to show that restraint. I’m the end he is where he deserves to be for his fraud and theft.

Some good news regards this case, at least. Mashinsky was really confident he was clever than everyone else till the end, but has finally gone to the jail after wasting biggest portion of investors' funds on his shady schemes and with his lawyers. Now he may stay imprisoned for 2 decades, unless he pays a fine and enters an agreement with the justice system. Let's see the next chapters of this story that I fear to not be near to its end yet...

I think the 4.7 billion sanction is more than enough to freeze whatever asset they may have. While Celsius is a big company, they don't really go as big as the titans in the industry like FTX and Binance which holds multi-billion treasuries. So with that being said the government is pretty much able to control whatever remaining stuff they have. While I want to agree with your statement too about the market carrying on despite the fact that SEC's going ham on penalizing these crypto-based businesses left and right, it's pretty much because well, we just moved on and realized that antagonizing them is a big waste of energy and resource, cause if they did ban crypto we can just go elsewhere lmao.

I don't know what the max sentences are for any of the allegations against him, but I saw in a Youtube video that he is facing over 100 years in prison. I think it was 115 years and even if they don't decide to fully exhaust the potential maximum penalty, it is quite likely that he could be dying in prison. There is also overwhelming evidence against him and he dug his hole even deeper making several transactions that to hide some of the funds. Looking at the whole case I doubt that he will get away with this. I am curious where they are going to draw the line between Mashinsky and SBF. Since Mashinsky ran a Ponzi scheme, I guess he is worse off than SBF who claims to be a good guy with good intentions nut bad organizational talent. :D

Sam might not go to prison, he might be freed and might only be given a slap on the wrist hehehe. He is Gensler's pet and he might now also be his informant.

On CZ and Binance. There should not be any personal feelings for or against him and the exchange. Everyone who has traded in Binance has agreed on their terms, you paid  for the fees and they gave you their service. It is a business relationship. If they are rumored to bite the dust, you should leave the service.

Who would've thought an unregulated lending platform, offering unrealistically high yields, trying to print it's own money, and was started by a pathological liar would turn out to be a scam? Celsius isn't all that different from other projects that began during the ICO boom. If the rules were applied fairly then many other ICO scammers deserve to be locked up alongside Mashinsky.

He has a group of lawyers to back him up, he pleaded not guilty on all the charges so that means he is ready to face trial and defend himself and probably he'll go for a settlement, the guy is good at presenting himself that's what scammers are great of, they do scamming and still face you and smile at you as if nothing happens.
So let's see what will happen to this case I hope the authorities will pin him and put him behind bars for good and recover assets.

Given his profile the chances of completely going off grid are slim, plus innocent until proven guilty, with most rights still in place while the process is ongoing.

Not expecting him to pull an Ignatova here :)

Whenever I heard news of people who committed some crypto-related crimes or who fooled the people who trusted them, there is always that celebratory feeling within me. And in my view, this is just right so that we can establish more accountability in this growing but still young industry. There should be no one above the law and all people who trespass the boundaries should be brought to court and defend themselves on accusations leveled against them. Hopefully, I am wishing that those who lost money in Celsius can have a good way to get back even a part of their hard-earned funds.

Sometimes it is difficult to understand where those judges draw the line. Mashinsky pulled off a mega scam and so did SBF, but SBF is allowed to spend his time as house arrest in his parents' home, which I assume is probably not the worst place to be detained. Oh now I found out that Mashinsky got released on $40 million bail. :D He doesn't seem to be broke then or at least there are still people in his network who still trust him. Those two trials are going to be interesting and it is hard to believe that both will get away with penalties on the lower end.

@mv1986. Hehe it is not where they draw the line. I speculate that Sam has become an informant for the government. There was this article on the Verge that had a clickbait title that asked who was snitching on the big crypto group chat? I reckon it might be the 2 Sams of Alameda Research. Sam Trabucco and later after the arrest, Sam Bankman-Fried.

We know the ending of this story already. The snitches make a deal with the government and walk out of jail, the people who were snitched on go on trial.



Who’s snitching on the big crypto group chat? / And why?

I have been somewhat unsure of what to make about The Wall Street Journal and The New York Times’ reports about text messages, sent on Signal, between rivals Changpeng “CZ” Zhao and Sam Bankman-Fried around the time FTX went up in smoke. That’s because I am not entirely sure who leaked them or who stands to benefit. But I’m pretty sure someone leaked to both of those outlets because the reports went up within hours of each other. So someone wants everyone to know about this!

Source https://www.theverge.com/2022/12/9/23502193/ftx-alameda-binance-kraken-tether-exchange-texts