Alex Mashinsky, the founder and former CEO of collapsed crypto lender Celsius Community, faces the prospect of spending the following twenty years behind bars if the U.S. Division of Justice’s sentencing memo request is granted.

Within the memo filed late Monday, the DOJ urged the courtroom to impose a 20-year jail sentence, calling the crimes a “deliberate, calculated” fraud that brought about almost $7 billion in buyer losses and left 1000’s financially devastated.

Mashinsky, who pleaded responsible in December to misrepresenting the protection of buyer deposits and manipulating Celsius’s CEL token, “refuses to simply accept accountability” for his crimes and continues to shift blame to regulators, market situations and even his victims, prosecutors stated.

“Mashinsky’s crimes weren’t the product of negligence, naivete, or unhealthy luck,” they wrote. “They have been the results of deliberate, calculated choices to lie, deceive, and steal in pursuit of private fortune.”

At its peak in 2021, Celsius managed greater than $20 billion in buyer crypto property. Mashinsky aggressively marketed the platform as a protected various to banks, promising excessive yields and low threat.

Prosecutors stated these guarantees have been a sham: Celsius took uncollateralized loans, made dangerous trades and secretly used buyer property to control the value of its CEL token — all whereas publicly assuring prospects their funds have been protected.

Mashinsky personally offered over $48 million price of CEL at inflated costs, prosecutors stated, whilst he instructed prospects he was “HODLing” alongside them. When Celsius collapsed out of business in July 2022, about $4.7 billion in buyer funds have been trapped.

Put up-bankruptcy, prospects have been left with a shortfall exceeding $1 billion. Adjusting for as we speak’s crypto costs post-2024’s “Trump-trade” rally, prosecutors estimate the overall loss is nearer to $7 billion.

Prosecutors warned that something lower than a big jail sentence would fail to replicate the gravity of Mashinsky’s conduct, undermine respect for the regulation, and ship the fallacious message to different crypto executives tempted to chase private enrichment on the expense of their prospects.

Decide John G. Koeltl will sentence Mashinsky on Could 8.