Judge gives DOJ until October to ‘make discovery’ in Mashinsky case

The judge, in new court filings, said the Oct. 3 conference allows “adequate time for the Government to make discovery”

article-image

Web Summit, CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons, modified by Blockworks

share

US prosecutors have asked the court overseeing the Department of Justice’s case against former Celsius CEO Alex Mashinsky for additional time to produce evidence. 

In court documents filed Tuesday, Judge John G. Koeltl said the next conference in the case will be held on Oct. 3 “to assure the effective assistance of counsel and to allow adequate time for the Government to make discovery and for the defense to review it, and because of the volume of discovery and the complexity of the case.”

He also ruled that the court “prospectively excludes the time from today, July 25, 2023, until October 3, 2023, from Speedy Trial calculations.” 

Generally, Speedy Trial calculations ensure that a trial begins 70 days “from the date the information or indictment was filed, or from the date the defendant appears before an officer of the court in which the charge is pending, whichever is later.”

A date for the trial has yet to be set.

On Monday, the judge granted Mashinsky an additional week because his team claimed he “requires additional time to satisfy the remaining obligations” of his bail. 

The DOJ unsealed an indictment against Mashinsky on July 13. The department alleges that Mashinsky “orchestrated a scheme to defraud customers of Celsius Network” together with Roni Cohen-Pavon, the former chief revenue officer. 

According to the indictment, Mashinsky allegedly made false statements, manipulated CEL — the native token of Celsius — and attempted to orchestrate “ a scheme to defraud investors.”

Mashinsky was released on a $40 million bond on July 14. One of his lawyers, Jonathan Ohring, told Blockworks that Mashinsky “vehemently denies the allegations brought yesterday. He looks forward to vigorously defending himself in court against these baseless charges.”

The SEC, CFTC and FTC also filed suits against Mashinsky and Celsius, alleging that customers were “duped” into making crypto deposits on Celsius, and falsely claimed that the now-bankrupt crypto lender was a modern bank. 

“In order to meet the returns promised to its customers, Celsius engaged in increasingly risky investment strategies, including the extension of millions of dollars in uncollateralized loans and millions of dollars in unregulated, risky decentralized finance agreements,” the CFTC said.


Get the news in your inbox. Explore Blockworks newsletters:

Tags

Decoding crypto and the markets. Daily, with Byron Gilliam.

Upcoming Events

Old Billingsgate

Mon - Wed, October 13 - 15, 2025

Blockworks’ Digital Asset Summit (DAS) will feature conversations between the builders, allocators, and legislators who will shape the trajectory of the digital asset ecosystem in the US and abroad.

Industry City | Brooklyn, NY

TUES - THURS, JUNE 24 - 26, 2025

Permissionless IV serves as the definitive gathering for crypto’s technical founders, developers, and builders to come together and create the future.If you’re ready to shape the future of crypto, Permissionless IV is where it happens.

Brooklyn, NY

SUN - MON, JUN. 22 - 23, 2025

Blockworks and Cracked Labs are teaming up for the third installment of the Permissionless Hackathon, happening June 22–23, 2025 in Brooklyn, NY. This is a 36-hour IRL builder sprint where developers, designers, and creatives ship real projects solving real problems across […]

recent research

Nillion_DeSci_Report_Template.png

Research

Nillion’s Monad Integration is poised to catalyze the next phase of DeSci’s evolution by eliminating key privacy bottlenecks. This synergy allows researchers, institutions, and DAOs to exchange sensitive data and insights securely while managing governance and payments onchain.

article-image

The SEC filed the suit on Tuesday night, alleging that some Unicoin executives made “false and misleading statements” and violated securities laws

article-image

VanEck’s Pranav Kanade told Blockworks that it doesn’t plan to launch a similar fund for other ecosystems at this time

article-image

What the history of global reserve currencies says about crypto’s future

article-image

A memecoin community delivered on a brick-and-mortar pop-up store

article-image

Despite continued disagreements within the GOP about the extent of the spending cuts, Trump said the House is unified

article-image

More crypto IPOs and M&A in the coming weeks could depend on bitcoin’s price, VanEck’s research head says