Celsius’ Top Brass Redeemed Millions Weeks Before Bankruptcy

key takeaways

Celsius’ court disclosure follows resignations from Mashinsky and Leon
Several other executives made no significant withdrawals around the same time, transaction details showed

The highest-ranking executives at bankrupt lender Celsius withdrew more than $15 million combined before the platform’s withdrawal freeze on June 12.

A statement of financial affairs submitted to court on Wednesday detailed Celsius co-founders Alex Mashinsky and Dan Leon’s financial actions in the days leading up to the lender’s transfer halt.

The executives made multiple withdrawals and internal account transfers around late May, including cryptoassets including bitcoin, ether and the platform’s native CEL token, documents running into more than 14,000 pages showed.

Mashinsky’s withdrawals were in the amount of $10 million, in line with what the Financial Times earlier reported. Leon’s withdrawals amounted to $7 million, in addition to CEL tokens worth $4 million.

Blockworks earlier reported that CTO Nuke Goldstein withdrew $13 million. But lawyers for the executive pointed out that he moved his funds within accounts on Celsius, involving corresponding deposits.

“Indeed, in the year before the pause, Mr. Goldstein had net positive deposits into Celsius (including interest), not withdrawals,” they wrote.

The Celsius bankruptcy case’s latest development follows the resignations of both Mashinsky and Leon. Mashinsky has said he was “very sorry” about the financial difficulties customers face. Meanwhile, Leon provided no public statement about his departure.

Other Celsius insiders including Chief Compliance Officer Oren Blonstein, Global Head of Business Processes Adrian Alisie, former Chief Financial Officer Rod Bolger and General Counsel Ron Deutsch did not carry out significant withdrawal transactions, according to the documents.

Since the lender’s bankruptcy, a group representing the company’s unsecured creditors has been investigating the key players who held decision-making authority. Upon the release of the lengthy documents, the committee said it would “carefully review the voluminous disclosures, which will inform key next steps for the process.”

The lender is currently looking to auction its assets, with a final bid deadline set for Oct. 17. FTX CEO Sam Bankman-Fried, who recently secured a $1.4 billion buyout for Voyager, is reportedly eyeing Celsius’ assets.

Celsius didn’t return Blockworks’ request for comment by press time.

This article corrected Goldstein’s transaction details on Oct. 6 at 11:54 pm ET.

Start your day with top crypto insights from David Canellis and Katherine Ross. Subscribe to the Empire newsletter.