Celsius and its creditors have begun court action to recover millions they say was fraudulently transferred from founder and former chief executive officer Alex Mashinsky, his wife and other former senior executives.

Court documents published on Tuesday allege Mashinsky, co-founder S. Daniel Leon and others mismanaged the crypto lender, inflated the price of CEL tokens for their own benefit, and made “negligent, reckless and sometimes self-interested investments” in the run-up to bankruptcy in July last year.

“The Complaint would bring claims and causes of action against the Prospective Defendants to return millions of dollars removed from the Celsius platform” in the months before it froze withdrawals, the filing said, adding that it seeks to "recover damages from billions of dollars that were lost by the Prospective Defendants’ negligent, reckless, and self-interested conduct.”

The 150-page legal document they filed requests recovery, costs and punitive damages based on 33 counts. They include the transfer of billions to decentralized finance platform KeyFi, which Mashinsky partly owned, to engage in speculative investment, a move which the filing said lost Celsius approximately $200 million.

(By Jack Schickler)

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