Former Celsius CEO Alex Mashinsky could face up to 115 years in prison. His legal team filed a memo last Friday with the New York District Court requesting permission for six former Celsius employees to testify in his criminal trial. These witnesses include high-ranking executives like the company’s former CFO and CRO, some of whom reside outside the United States.

In the memo, the lawyers claim that Mashinsky did not intend to harm anyone. “As CEO of Celsius, Mashinsky relied on information provided by his experienced team of Celsius professionals,” the memo states. “The stakes are high,” the lawyers later added, “The government has informed the defense that its ‘current position’ is that the ‘Sentencing Guidelines’ call for a 115-year prison sentence for Mashinsky.”

Celsius filed for bankruptcy in 2022 and was shut down earlier this year. In July 2023, Mashinsky was arrested for allegedly defrauding customers and misleading them about Celsius’ profitability. The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) accused Celsius and Mashinsky of raising billions of dollars through fraudulent and unregistered cryptocurrency sales, repeatedly lying to investors about Celsius’ financial status, and manipulating the price of the company’s native token CEL. (The Block)