The claims against Sam Bankman-Fried, the founder of the FTX cryptocurrency exchange, have shaken the industry, and James’ lawsuit is the most recent black eye.
Alex Mashinsky, a serial entrepreneur who co-founded the now-defunct cryptocurrency lender Celsius Network, has positioned himself as a modern-day Robin Hood. He allegedly conned investors out of billions of dollars, according to the prosecution.
Letitia James, the attorney general of New York, filed a case on Thursday alleging that Mashinsky, 57, promoted Celsius as a safe alternative to banks.
In addition to having Mashinsky pay damages, restitution, and disgorgement, the civil complaint seeks to bar him from conducting business in New York.
The claims against Sam Bankman-Fried, the founder of the FTX cryptocurrency exchange, have shaken the industry, and James’ lawsuit is the most recent black eye. The former business mogul filed a not-guilty plea on Tuesday. He is accused of cheating investors and causing losses of billions of dollars.
Mashinsky decided to go to the city in 1988 after seeing there, according to him in a Forbes podcast. Mashinsky is a native of Ukraine, and his family emigrated to Israel.
Since then, he has started eight companies, including Arbinet, which went public in 2004, and Transit Wireless, which provides Wi-Fi in the New York City subway.
Mashinsky asserts to have invented VoIP, a predecessor of Uber’s ride-hailing business, as well as a cryptocurrency idea that before bitcoin.
Mashinsky became interested in the sector when the blockchain company MicroMoney joined Governing Dynamics as a strategic partner in 2017. He invented Celsius in the same year.
Mashinsky intended to start a firm that carried out whole-body transplants. Give an aged person a new body, retaining the brain and spine while reconstructing the rest, he asserted.
The businessman served in the Israeli army from 1984 to 1987, getting pilot training and participating in the Golani infantry divisions, according to his personal website.
