July 13 (Reuters) - Alex Mashinsky, the founder and former CEO of bankrupt cryptocurrency lender Celsius Network, was arrested and charged with fraud, a U.S. prosecutor in New York said Thursday, while three federal regulatory agencies sued him and his company.
Mashinsky, 57, was charged with seven criminal counts - including securities fraud, commodities fraud and wire fraud - while Celsius' former chief revenue officer, Roni Cohen-Pavon, was charged with four criminal counts, according to the indictment, which was unsealed on Thursday.
Its founder Sam Bankman-Fried was charged with fraud last year, and has pleaded not guilty.
Crypto lenders such as Celsius grew rapidly as crypto prices surged during the COVID-19 pandemic.
The U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission and the Federal Trade Commission also sued Celsius and Mashinsky.
Persons:
Alex Mashinsky, Roni Cohen, Pavon, Cohen, Sam Bankman, Fried, Mashinsky, Niket, Hannah Lang, Elizabeth Howcroft, Chris Prentice, Shinjini Ganguli, Chizu Nomiyama, Jonathan Oatis
Organizations:
Mashinsky, Attorney's, Prosecutors, U.S . Securities, Exchange Commission, SEC, Arrows Capital, U.S . Commodity Futures Trading Commission, Federal Trade Commission, FTC, Network, Coinbase, Arbinet, Transit Wireless, Thomson
Locations:
U.S, New York, Manhattan, New Jersey, cryptocurrency, Singapore, Bengaluru, Washington, London