Mashinsky Seeks Sentence Reversal Amid Claims of Counsel Withdrawal

Alex Mashinsky, the former CEO of defunct cryptocurrency lending platform Celsius, has filed a motion to vacate his sentence for fraud and market manipulation.

The motion claims that Mashinsky's lawyers withdrew their representation, leaving him without counsel. He had announced on May 5 that he would be proceeding pro se in his case.

Mashinsky argues that he had ineffective counsel and that the evidence against him was tainted by authorities' misconduct.

He also accuses FTX's Sam Bankman-Fried of plotting against Celsius, claiming that he intended to 'destroy Celsius' and blaming him for much of the market manipulation of the network's CEL tokens on the crypto exchange.