Celsius co-founders get the bill: $6M+ down, still chilling next to Mashinsky's $4.72B tab ❄️

Two former Celsius executives have been ordered to pay a combined total of more than $6 million to settle Federal Trade Commission charges that they misled customers about the safety of the crypto lending platform before its 2022 collapse. A US District Judge for the Southern District of New York signed the orders, with Goldstein's entered on Monday by Judge Denise Cote and Leon's entered on June 29.

Shlomi Daniel Leon, Celsius's former chief strategy officer, must pay $4.1 million under his order. Hanoch "Nuke" Goldstein, the company's former chief technology officer, must pay $2.014 million under his. Both men are co-founders of Celsius. The FTC said the settlements extend the regulatory fallout from the company's bankruptcy beyond former chief executive Alex Mashinsky.

The FTC alleged that Celsius falsely told customers it held sufficient reserves to meet withdrawal demands, maintained a $750 million insurance policy covering customer deposits and did not issue unsecured loans, even as top executives continued to claim deposits were safe days before the bankruptcy filing. "The FTC, however, alleged that the promises were false and that its top executives continued to claim that customers' deposits were safe days before the company filed for bankruptcy," the agency said.

Celsius held $25 billion in assets at its peak and owed users $4.7 billion when it filed for bankruptcy in July 2022. Leon's order bars him from marketing or selling products or services that can be used to deposit, exchange, invest or withdraw assets, while Goldstein agreed to a ban on marketing or selling retail products or services that can be used to buy, sell, deposit, withdraw, distribute or trade cryptocurrency, according to the FTC statement.

The $2.014 million and $4.1 million payments will be credited against a broader, partially suspended $4.72 billion judgment tied to the case. In April, Mashinsky agreed to an FTC settlement that permanently bars him from promoting asset-related products and required him to pay $10 million as part of that judgment. Separately, Mashinsky was sentenced to 12 years in prison in May 2025 after pleading guilty to commodities and securities fraud charges, with prosecutors saying he misled Celsius customers about the company's profitability, investment risks and the safety of customer funds.