Breaking: Celsius Network fined $4.7B by FTC

The U.S. Federal Trade Commission has issued a $4.7 cardinal good against bankrupt crypto lender Celsius Network.

According to the July 13 announcement, Celsius and its affiliate companies volition beryllium permanently banned from "offering, marketing, oregon promoting immoderate merchandise oregon work that could beryllium utilized to deposit, exchange, invest, oregon retreat immoderate assets."

The New Jersey-based steadfast marketed a assortment of cryptocurrency products and services to consumers, specified arsenic interest-bearing accounts, idiosyncratic loans secured by their cryptocurrency deposits, and a cryptocurrency exchange. In its complaint, the FTC alleged that co-founders Alex Mashinsky, Shlomi Leon, and Hanoch Goldstein marketed the level arsenic a "safe place" for consumers to deposit their cryptocurrency portion misappropriating implicit $4 cardinal successful consumers' assets.

In addition, the FTC accused Celsius of making $1.2 cardinal successful unsecured loans, falsely stating that it had a $750 cardinal idiosyncratic security argumentation and lacking immoderate means of tracking its assets and liabilities until late-2021. Even during the onset of the 2022 cryptocurrency carnivore market, executives allegedly lied astir the well-being of the company, arsenic told by the FTC:

"While lying to their customers to support them from withdrawing their cryptocurrency deposits, Leon, Goldstein, and Mashinsky protected themselves by withdrawing important sums of cryptocurrency from Celsius 2 months earlier the institution filed for bankruptcy. Consumers subsequently mislaid entree to their beingness savings, assemblage funds, and wealth saved for retirement."

The aforesaid day, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission and the Commodity Futures Trading Commission besides filed lawsuits against Celsius. At the aforesaid time, Mashinsky was indicted connected seven fraud-related charges by the U.S. Department of Justice and was subsequently taken into custody. Celsius antecedently filed for bankruptcy past July.

Collect this nonfiction arsenic an NFT to sphere this infinitesimal successful past and amusement your enactment for autarkic journalism successful the crypto space.