Celsius ex-CEO Mashinsky accepts lifetime crypto ban and up to $35 million in New York settlement

New York Attorney General Letitia James announced on October 9 that her office settled its 2023 civil case against former Celsius Network CEO and co-founder Alex Mashinsky, permanently barring him from the securities, commodities and cryptocurrency industries and securing up to $35 million. The settlement, filed October 8 and announced the next day according to Bitcoin.com News, resolves claims that Mashinsky misled hundreds of thousands of investors, including more than 26,000 New Yorkers, about the safety of their Celsius deposits. The money is not a payment already collected: under the consent order, a $25 million damages obligation to New York is deemed satisfied if he pays $10 million to the US Department of Justice under his federal forfeiture order, with payments made after May 20, 2025 counting dollar for dollar, and a separate $10 million judgment is deemed satisfied by completion of his federal imprisonment, subject to exceptions for a sentence overturned or reduced on a Section 2255 challenge, compassionate release, good-time or earned-time credits, First Step Act early release and home confinement. CryptoSlate and Bitcoin Insider both stress that the $35 million headline is not evidence New York has received cash or that creditors get it immediately. Mashinsky is serving a 12-year federal sentence after pleading guilty to securities and commodities fraud; the Commodity Futures Trading Commission said he pleaded guilty on December 3, 2024, was sentenced on May 8, 2025, was ordered to forfeit $48,393,446, and settled its own case with a permanent injunction in June 2026, while The Daily Hodl refers to more than $48 million forfeited. One disagreement sits on the case chronology: CoinDesk, Decrypt and Crypto.News say James sued in 2023, Unchained and CryptoSlate specify January 2023. Mashinsky has asked a court to vacate his 12-year sentence, and his request to trade his own crypto personally is carved out of the ban. The attorney general's office said more than $3.4 billion had reached creditors in the Celsius bankruptcy as of August 2026.