The Acting Director of the SEC is looking to rescind or modify even more previous crypto guidance based on “recommendations from DOGE”.
And the agency has dropped even more investigations and lawsuits, including against Trump business partner Crypto.com.
He’s attempting a rather novel argument for leniency in his sentencing: there’s just so much crime in crypto that he forgot it wasn’t allowed.
Elsewhere in the last remaining crypto crime cases we may see for a while, it seems Celsius CEO Alex Mashinsky might be trying to weasel out of responsibility for the crimes to which he’s pleaded guilty. His sentencing is scheduled for a month from now.
@molly0xfff for reference https://youtu.be/zXmQW_aqBks?si=bZtwt7WieqHcy3aB Steve Martin "You Can Be a Millionaire"
@molly0xfff @isotopp this tactic is so old, that the romans had a legal principle against it. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ignorantia_juris_non_excusat
That and more in this week’s recap issue of Citation Needed, an independent publication entirely supported by readers like you. Consider signing up for a free or pay-what-you-want subscription — it really helps me to keep doing this work.
@molly0xfff In other major crypto-scam news, you may want to keep track of the $LIBRA scandal and new events unfolding:
https://mstdn.social/@laizquierdadiariorss@mastodon.social/114304265578299734
For those not in the know:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/$Libra_cryptocurrency_scandal
![The SEC investigation into Crypto.com has been terminated, and the agency will not pursue any enforcement action.20 This is hardly surprising given the flood of dropped SEC lawsuits and closed investigations targeting the industry, but it’s especially unsurprising given that, three days earlier, Trump Media picked Crypto.com as a partner to launch various exchange-traded funds [I80].
I noted in February that, despite the Winklevoss twins’ victory screeches, it wasn’t clear that the ongoing lawsuit regarding the Gemini Earn product had actually been dropped [I78]. The lawsuit was filed against Gemini and Genesis Global Capital in January 2023 after Gemini customers lost access to almost $1 billion in funds as the two companies halted withdrawals [I16], and Genesis settled their portion of the case for $21 million in March 2024 [I50]. The portion against Gemini had been ongoing until an April 1 joint request for a 60-day stay to “allow the parties to explore a potential resolution”.21 This is the same language that’s been used to halt the SEC cases against companies like Coinbase and Tron, and it’s widely understood that these mark the end of SEC scrutiny for these companies.
Even “Hawk Tuah girl” is out of the woods, recently telling TMZ that the SEC had closed its investigation into the memecoin flop [W3IGG] that became emblematic of the memecoin world and — particularly lately — crypto as a whole.22](/proxy/post_attachment/475902/c509f2711b.png "The SEC investigation into Crypto.com has been terminated, and the agency will not pursue any enforcement action.20 This is hardly surprising given the flood of dropped SEC lawsuits and closed investigations targeting the industry, but it’s especially unsurprising given that, three days earlier, Trump Media picked Crypto.com as a partner to launch various exchange-traded funds [I80].
I noted in February that, despite the Winklevoss twins’ victory screeches, it wasn’t clear that the ongoing lawsuit regarding the Gemini Earn product had actually been dropped [I78]. The lawsuit was filed against Gemini and Genesis Global Capital in January 2023 after Gemini customers lost access to almost $1 billion in funds as the two companies halted withdrawals [I16], and Genesis settled their portion of the case for $21 million in March 2024 [I50]. The portion against Gemini had been ongoing until an April 1 joint request for a 60-day stay to “allow the parties to explore a potential resolution”.21 This is the same language that’s been used to halt the SEC cases against companies like Coinbase and Tron, and it’s widely understood that these mark the end of SEC scrutiny for these companies.
Even “Hawk Tuah girl” is out of the woods, recently telling TMZ that the SEC had closed its investigation into the memecoin flop [W3IGG] that became emblematic of the memecoin world and — particularly lately — crypto as a whole.22")
![Avi Eisenberg
Mango Markets exploiter Avraham “Avi” Eisenberg has filed his sentencing memo ahead of his April 10 sentencing, where he will face a maximum of twenty years in prison.7 A year ago, Eisenberg was convicted on fraud and market manipulation charges in connection to the $110 million exploit of the Mango Markets cryptocurrency platform [W3IGG, I6, 43, 55, 56, 67]. However, shortly before his conviction, the government filed an additional charge of possession of child pornography after finding evidence of such while examining Eisenberg’s devices in connection to the crypto theft. Eisenberg pleaded guilty almost immediately to the additional charge, and the cases were combined for sentencing purposes.](/proxy/post_attachment/475903/07ebd02358.png "Avi Eisenberg
Mango Markets exploiter Avraham “Avi” Eisenberg has filed his sentencing memo ahead of his April 10 sentencing, where he will face a maximum of twenty years in prison.7 A year ago, Eisenberg was convicted on fraud and market manipulation charges in connection to the $110 million exploit of the Mango Markets cryptocurrency platform [W3IGG, I6, 43, 55, 56, 67]. However, shortly before his conviction, the government filed an additional charge of possession of child pornography after finding evidence of such while examining Eisenberg’s devices in connection to the crypto theft. Eisenberg pleaded guilty almost immediately to the additional charge, and the cases were combined for sentencing purposes.")
![Alex Mashinsky
Prosecutors are seeking further action from the court regarding factual disputes pertaining to the conduct of Alex Mashinsky, the former CEO of Celsius who pleaded guilty to fraud and market manipulation in December [I71]. It’s not entirely clear what the disputes entail, as the government’s letter was filed under seal,9 but it seems that the government feels Mashinsky is trying to deny responsibility for actions stipulated in his plea agreement. An unsealed response letter10 from Mashinsky’s defense quotes a portion of the prosecutors’ letter, where they allege Mashinsky is “distancing himself from the stipulations in the plea agreement”. Mashinsky’s lawyers write that, “The parties certainly dispute the nature and circumstances of Mr. Mashinsky’s offense, and whether, for example, he knowingly misrepresented Celsius’s profitability to customers or engaged in a conspiracy with Roni Cohen Pavon (and others) to manipulate the price of CEL token,” but argue that it is not material to his sentencing.
At least according to Mashinsky’s lawyers, prosecutors are looking for the judge to either resolve factual disputes regarding Mashinsky’s conduct in the government’s favor, or conduct a two-week hearing in which both parties can present evidence for evaluation in his sentencing. Mashinsky’s lawyers don’t want either of these things, and want his sentencing to proceed as scheduled on May 8.](/proxy/post_attachment/475906/cfd17bed00.png "Alex Mashinsky
Prosecutors are seeking further action from the court regarding factual disputes pertaining to the conduct of Alex Mashinsky, the former CEO of Celsius who pleaded guilty to fraud and market manipulation in December [I71]. It’s not entirely clear what the disputes entail, as the government’s letter was filed under seal,9 but it seems that the government feels Mashinsky is trying to deny responsibility for actions stipulated in his plea agreement. An unsealed response letter10 from Mashinsky’s defense quotes a portion of the prosecutors’ letter, where they allege Mashinsky is “distancing himself from the stipulations in the plea agreement”. Mashinsky’s lawyers write that, “The parties certainly dispute the nature and circumstances of Mr. Mashinsky’s offense, and whether, for example, he knowingly misrepresented Celsius’s profitability to customers or engaged in a conspiracy with Roni Cohen Pavon (and others) to manipulate the price of CEL token,” but argue that it is not material to his sentencing.
At least according to Mashinsky’s lawyers, prosecutors are looking for the judge to either resolve factual disputes regarding Mashinsky’s conduct in the government’s favor, or conduct a two-week hearing in which both parties can present evidence for evaluation in his sentencing. Mashinsky’s lawyers don’t want either of these things, and want his sentencing to proceed as scheduled on May 8.")
