Filing: Vermont says Celsius CEO Alex Mashinsky repeatedly misled investors about the lender's finances and used its own CEL token to bolster its balance sheet
The crypto lender admitted in a recent creditor call that it could not earn enough revenue to support its yields, the Vermont Department of Financial Regulation said. Tweets: @davidzmorris , @ldrogen , @thestalwart , @davidbelle_ , @plainsite , @martinkrung , @hedgeye , @bitfinexed , @bennetttomlin , @smtuffy , @smtuffy , @bennetttomlin , @kadhim , @kadhim , @kadhim , @silvermanjacob , @silvermanjacob , @bennetttomlin , and @bennetttomlin Tweets: David Z. Morris / @davidzmorris : This #CelsiusNetwork filing is absolutely bonkers. Analysis incoming, but the long and short: state investigators believe it was a Ponzi scheme as early as 2020. https://cases.stretto.com/... Leigh Drogen / @ldrogen : Directly to jail, do not pass go, do not collect $200 https://twitter.com/... Joe Weisenthal / @thestalwart : State AGs getting in on the action https://twitter.com/... David Belle / @davidbelle_ : you're going pen @Mashinsky https://twitter.com/... @plainsite : A perfect example of how completely broken the state-based money transmission regulatory system is. 40 investigators, zero proactive steps prior to failure and customer losses. https://twitter.com/... @martinkrung : And during decline the team sold their (private) CEL token to their own company! https://twitter.com/... https://twitter.com/... @hedgeye : https://twitter.com/... https://twitter.com/... @bitfinexed : I thought it was a Ponzi scam in 2019. https://twitter.com/... Bennett Tomlin / @bennetttomlin : Do y'all know how hard it is to get 40 US States working on the same thing? https://t.co/3fdvBvB4Cu Sean Tuffy / @smtuffy : Never tweet https://twitter.com/... Sean Tuffy / @smtuffy : Oh https://cases.stretto.com/... https://twitter.com/... Bennett Tomlin / @bennetttomlin : Excluding Celsius token, LIABILITIES EXCEEDED ASSETS IN FEBRUARY 2019 FOR CELSIUS https://twitter.com/... @kadhim : The filing includes balance sheet information for May, based on financials Celsius provided to state regulators: https://cases.stretto.com/... Vermont says they show “liabilities substantially exceeding assets, whether including or excluding the [CEL holdings]” https://twitter.com/... @kadhim : This is a pretty damning court filing from Vermont's Department of Financial Regulation about bankrupt crypto lender Celsius Network. Alleges that without Celsius's holdings of its own native CEL token, it has been insolvent since at least February 2019 https://cases.stretto.com/... @kadhim : Other claims include: - Celsius was deeply insolvent when it told customers on June 7 it could meet all its obligations; - In May/June, Celsius was buying its own CEL token with customer assets, “artificially inflating” its own balance sheet and also possibly enriching insiders @silvermanjacob : Celsius was insolvent as early as 2020. It “never earned enough revenue to support the yields being paid to investors” — ie it was a Ponzi from the beginning. https://twitter.com/... @silvermanjacob : Mashinsky repeatedly lied about the health of Celsius. On May 11, he said everything was fine when the company was insolvent after having lost $454m in 10 days. https://twitter.com/... Bennett Tomlin / @bennetttomlin : “During the course of the multistate investigation, it has become clear that Celsius, through its CEO Alex Mashinsky and otherwise, made false and misleading claims to investors about, inter alia, the company's financial health and its compliance with securities laws” https://twitter.com/... Bennett Tomlin / @bennetttomlin : Okay this is absolutely wild. There were 40 state regulators investigating them https://twitter.com/... https://twitter.com/...