FTC Drops The Hammer On Celsius Network With Historic $4.7 Billion Fine

The US Federal Trade Commission (FTC) has reached a settlement with cryptocurrency platform Celsius Network, which has been charged with duping consumers into transferring cryptocurrency into their platform and then “squandering” billions in user deposits.

The settlement will permanently ban Celsius from handling consumers’ assets and charge three former executives with “tricking” consumers into transferring their cryptocurrency onto the platform by “falsely promising” that deposits would be safe and always available.

Celsius Network Banned From Offering Services

According to the FTC’s announcement, the settlement with Celsius and its affiliates will permanently ban the companies from offering, marketing, or promoting any product or service that could be used to deposit, exchange, invest or withdraw any assets.

The companies also agreed to a judgment of $4.7 billion, which will be suspended to permit Celsius to return its remaining assets to consumers in bankruptcy proceedings.

However, the former executives, ex-CEO and co-founder Alexander Mashinsky along with Celsius’s other co-founders Shlomi Daniel Leon and Hanoch “Nuke” Goldstein, have not agreed to a settlement, and the FTC’s case against them will proceed in federal court.

Celsius, a New Jersey-based company that filed for bankruptcy in July 2022, marketed a variety of cryptocurrency products and services to consumers, including interest-bearing accounts, personal loans secured by their cryptocurrency deposits, and a cryptocurrency exchange.

However, according to a complaint filed by the FTC in federal court, Mashinsky, Leon, and Goldstein marketed the platform as a safe place for consumers to deposit their cryptocurrency, claiming that its platform was safer than banks because “we have less risk, we have much less risk.”

What’s more, the FTC alleges that the company and its top executives “deceived” users by falsely promising them that they could withdraw their deposits at any time, that the company maintained a $750 million insurance policy for deposits,

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Author: Ronaldo Marquez

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