Judge cancels ex-Celsius exec sentencing after Alex Mashinsky plea deal

Roni Cohen-Pavon, the former chief revenue officer of crypto lending platform Celsius, will not be sentenced on Dec. 11 after former CEO Alex Mashinsky reached an agreement with United States prosecutors. 

In a Dec. 9 filing in the US District Court for the Southern District of New York, Judge John Koeltl approved a request by US Attorney Damian Williams to cancel Cohen-Pavon’s sentencing hearing until after Mashinsky’s, which is scheduled for April 2025. Williams said Cohen-Pavon provided information that “may be relevant” in Mashinsky’s sentencing hearing.

Dec. 9 SDNY filing canceling Roni Cohen-Pavon’s sentencing hearing. Source: PACER

John Koeltl ordered both parties to report on April 18 — ten days after Mashinsky’s scheduled hearing — for an update. He could determine whether to send the former Celsius executive to prison after Cohen-Pavon pleaded guilty to four felony charges. 

The decision followed Mashinsky’s seemingly unexpected agreement to plead guilty to two charges on Dec. 3 as part of a deal with prosecutors. He could face up to 30 years in prison if given the maximum sentence on both charges, served consecutively.

Mashinsky and Cohen-Pavon were indicted in July 2023 for charges related to misleading Celsius users and profiting from price manipulation. Cohen-Pavon was not in the US when the indictment was filed and initially pleaded not guilty to the charges. 

After his arrest in September 2023, Cohen-Pavon pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit price manipulation, securities fraud, manipulation of security prices and wire fraud. He has been awaiting sentencing for more than a year.

Could Cohen-Pavon influence whether Mashinsky goes to prison?

It’s unclear how Cohen-Pavon’s guilty plea and any information he provided in court could affect the judge’s consideration at Mashinsky’s sentencing. The former Celsius CEO admitted to lying to users about the platform having approval from US regulators and not selling his CEL (CEL) token holdings. He agreed to forfeit $48 million in proceeds from the scheme.

Cohen-Pavon has been free to travel between New York and Israel after posting a $500,000 bond. Judge Koeltl also allowed the former Celsius executive to travel to Singapore in September, leading to speculation that he might have attended the Token2049 crypto conference scheduled the same week. 

Related: Celsius to distribute additional $127M from ‘Litigation Recovery Account’

Celsius, which filed for bankruptcy in 2022, was one of the biggest crypto platforms to collapse amid a market downturn that resulted in millions of users being cut off from a combined billions of dollars held in accounts. Former FTX CEO Sam Bankman-Fried and former Binance CEO Changpeng Zhao were both sentenced to time in prison on different charges. 

In November, a bankruptcy judge approved a Celsius reorganization plan, setting the stage for debtors to distribute roughly $2 billion to the platform’s creditors. The company reported in September that it planned to begin repaying customers by 2025.

Magazine: ‘Less flashy’ Mashinsky set for less jail time than SBF: Inner City Press, X Hall of Flame