The Vermont Department of Financial Regulation has outlined a variety of state concerns about unregistered securities offerings and fraud committed by the cryptocurrency firm Celsius Network, suggesting that the company is a Ponzi scheme.
Statements made by Celsius CEO false and misleading
A filing in the United States Bankruptcy Court of the Southern District of New York by the regulator slammed several statements made by Celsius CEO Alex Mashinsky and dubbed them as fraudulent and deceptive.
It adds that despite worries about the volatility in the crypto market, statements made by the CEO likely persuaded retail investors to buy into Celsius or to leave their investments in the company.
The Vermont Department of Financial Regulation terms several statements of Mashinsky as “false” at the time of their publication.
In a blog post published on June 7, he claimed that Celsius has “the reserves (and more than enough ETH) to meet obligations, as dictated by our comprehensive liquidity risk management framework. “
However, according to Celsius’s financial records, at the time of the statements, they had a “deeply negative net worth” and lacked the assets necessary to pay back deposits.
In a tweet from a month prior, Mashinsky said the company had not suffered “any significant losses,” adding that “all funds are secure,” despite the fact that when the announcement was issued on May 11, the company had unrealized losses of more than $454 million between May 2 and May…
