The founder and Former CEO of crypto lender Celsius, Alex Mashinsky, requested in the court filing that the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) drop its complaint against him.
Celsius declared bankruptcy last year as the cryptocurrency winter descended, and Mashinsky was arrested in July as a result of a coordinated move by the consumer protection agency, the Department of Justice, and securities and commodities regulators.
There are multiple charges of fraud and manipulation of the price of the CEL token, which are ‘baseless’ as per his lawyers, and he pleaded not guilty to these charges. Subsequently, the lawyers also urge dismissal of the FTC’s claim that he misled investors.
Mashinsky’s lawyers said, “The allegations do not support a claim that Mashinsky made knowingly made a misstatement to fraudulently obtain customer information from a financial institution,” as is required under a 1999 law known as the Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act.
Mashinsky argued that the FTC should create more regulations before tackling novel cases like marketing fraud, along with his former Chief Technology Officer Hanoch “Nuke” Goldstein. In a separate filing, Goldstein claimed that the FTC was wrongly accusing him of wrongdoing because of his association with other Celsius executives and because he had retweeted one of their blogs.
Also Read: Steve Kokinos To Lead Company Taking Over Celsius
