Legal professionals for Celsius founder Alex Mashinsky argue that prosecutors are stripping him of his humanity to assist a harsh sentence disconnected from his true actions.
Alex Mashinsky‘s authorized staff has criticized the U.S. authorities’s request to condemn the previous Celsius Network CEO to at the least 20 years in jail, calling it a “death-in-prison sentence” for a non-violent, first-time offender.
In a Might 5 filing, Mashinsky’s legal professionals stated the federal government’s “venom-laced submission recasts this case as one involving a predator with an intent to ‘goal’ victims, ‘hurt’ them, and ‘steal’ their cash.” They argue the Division of Justice ignored Mashinsky’s background so as “to dehumanize him.”
“So their submission says nothing concerning the persecution of his Soviet Jewish refusenik household. There is no such thing as a acknowledgment of the accidents and losses he suffered as a member of the Israeli Protection Forces.”
Mashinsky’s legal professionals
The legal professionals say the submission additionally omits Mashinsky’s companies “he based over thirty years in closely regulated environments that introduced him success nicely earlier than Celsius, with nary a blemish on his report.”
Mashinsky’s staff claims the DOJ’s narrative paints him as if he “was born at 59 years outdated, a fiend,” and that this method “renders all of the extra absurd the notion {that a} man devoted to service all through his life instantly underwent a Jekyll-to-Hyde transformation.”
Entire particular person
In line with the protection, prosecutors have used “savage and primal phrases often reserved for essentially the most violent criminals,” resembling saying Mashinsky “intentionally focused actual, ‘on a regular basis’ individuals,” “plundered” and “preyed,” “destroy[ed] lives,” and “doesn’t even feint at contrition.” The protection has requested the court docket to contemplate Mashinsky as a “complete particular person” forward of the Might 8 sentencing.
As crypto.information reported earlier, U.S. prosecutors are in search of a 20-year jail sentence for Mashinsky, calling his actions a calculated fraud that left hundreds of shoppers with billions in losses. In line with reports, Mashinsky and his spouse withdrew an estimated $12 million in crypto from the Celsius Community earlier than the chapter proceedings started. Celsius, launched in 2018, grew to 200 staff and managed round $10 billion in crypto belongings by 2021.
Greater than 200 sufferer statements were submitted forward of sentencing, with many calling for a life sentence for Alex Mashinsky.