A former investment manager sues Celsius for fraud, saying the crypto lender ran a Ponzi scheme by using customer deposits to rig the price of its crypto token
I've been recovering from COVID over the last two weeks and have had some time to reflect … Katyanna Quach / The Register : Now-frozen crypto-lending biz Celsius accused of devolving into a Ponzi scheme Bryce Elder / Financial Times : Crypto lender Celsius sued by its own ‘hapless’ money manager Margaux MacColl / The Information : Crypto Wants Its Cash Back: Inside the Small but Mighty Legal Crusade to Win Back Lost Savings David Z Morris / CoinDesk : Celsius Looks Sloppy in New Lawsuit, but So Does the DeFi Legend Suing It Katie Canales / Insider : An ex-employee at a crypto-lender that's holding customer deposits hostage has sued the company, calling it a ‘Ponzi scheme’ Kyt Dotson / SiliconANGLE : Crypto lender Celsius Network accused of fraud in lawsuit Oluwapelumi Adejumo / CryptoSlate : Celsius gets sued amidst Ponzi scheme allegations Kyle Barr / Gizmodo : One of Celsius' Old Partners Calls Crypto Exchange ‘Ponzi Scheme’ in New Suit Step by Step Crypto : KeyFi INC v Celsius Network Limited and Celsius KeyFi LLC JD Alois / Crowdfund Insider : Lawsuit Filed Against Celsius Alleging “Classic Ponzi Scheme” Andrew Asmakov / Decrypt : Celsius Lost $350M of Client Funds From ‘High-Risk’ Levered Trading: Arkham Report Coinmonks : FIVE MINUTE FINANCE: MAJOR IMPLICATIONS IN SOLANA'S LAWSUIT, VOYAGER'S BANKRUPTCY, POLY UP 28%+ Macauley Peterson / Blockworks : Celsius Farmed Out Funds to DeFi Degen Jinia Shawdagor / Crypto Adventure : Celsius Network Faces Fraud Charges Amid Liquidity Strains Nicholas Otieno / Blockchain News : Lawsuit: Ex-Employee Accuses Celsius Network of Financial Fraud Involvement Arjun Kharpal / CNBC : Embattled crypto lender Celsius is a ‘fraud’ and ‘Ponzi scheme,’ lawsuit alleges Justinas Baltrusaitis / Finbold : Celsius is a ‘Ponzi scheme’, ex-employee alleges in a new lawsuit Leigh Mc Gowran / Silicon Republic : Troubled crypto lender Celsius accused of being Ponzi scheme in lawsuit Ambar Warrick / CoinGape : Breaking: Celsius Slapped With Lawsuit Calling It A Ponzi Scheme Brian Quarmby / Cointelegraph : Bombshell allegations of fraud as KeyFi takes Celsius to court Kate Irwin / Decrypt : KeyFi CEO Behind 0xb1 Twitter Account Sues Celsius for ‘Ponzi Scheme’ Zeke Faux / Bloomberg : Crypto Lender Celsius Accused of Being ‘Ponzi Scheme’ The Block : Celsius accused of fraud in lawsuit by former money manager Tweets: @0x_b1 : Hi all! I'm Jason Stone, and from August 2020 until April 2021, I led the group of talented individuals who managed the 0xb1 address. @0x_b1 : Given the public speculation about the company's solvency, and my observation of Celsius' loose relationship with the truth, I feel it is only prudent to finally set the record straight. I have brought legal action against Celsius to settle this issue once and for all. John Reed Stark / @johnreedstark : Witness the spawning of a new legal industry: Class action lawsuits alleging crypto as a Ponzi scheme. Crypto-litigation will soon dominate class action dockets and become a focal point of business development for law firm class action legal defense teams. https://www.reuters.com/... Andrew T / @blockanalia : This thread kind of buries the lede, if that can be believed https://twitter.com/... https://twitter.com/... @kentonprescott : 1/ The Celsius filing is just too juicy to read w/o sharing. Here're the few gems I found after a quick scan of the official docs. Buckle up, and let's dive in! https://twitter.com/... Jason Meyers / @jasonmeyersnyc : Crypto has a very serious transparency problem. @Auditchain fixes this https://www.bloomberg.com/... @0x_b1 : But in late Feb 2021, we discovered Celsius had lied to us. They had not been hedging our activities, nor had they been hedging the fluctuations in cryptoasset prices. The entire company's portfolio had naked exposure to the market. Ben Armstrong / @bitboy_crypto : Jason has a lawsuit against Celsius so this is only one side of the story. But if we assume this thread is true, Alex Mashinsky will go down in history as one of the dumbest humans on earth. He operated like a degenerative gambler with all our money. Hard to grasp it all still. https://twitter.com/... @0x_b1 : I have tried for over a year to quietly settle this dispute with Celsius. Pursuant to the contracts Celsius signed with KeyFi, they owe KeyFi a significant sum of money. We have been more than reasonable in attempting to resolve this with them. @conzimp : brah crypto cannot possibly get any worse from an optics perspective, i might as well start telling ppl i sell drugs instead https://twitter.com/... Alex Svanevik🐧 / @asvanevik : Since he chose to reveal his identity, let me share a short story ... https://twitter.com/... @iamdcinvestor : seems like every chad wallet/account was just trading borrowed money from consumer deposits https://twitter.com/... @punk6529 : this is wild (one side of the story, etc, etc) but wild https://twitter.com/... @tier10k : “Faced with a liquidity crisis, Celsius began to offer double-digit interest rates in order to lure new depositors, whose funds were used to repay earlier depositors and creditors” https://twitter.com/... Stephen Diehl / @smdiehl : Anyone with one iota of sense could tell this was a Ponzi. There's no such thing as riskless 18% return, it's just paying out old investors from new investors. It could *only* have been a Ponzi. https://www.reuters.com/...