by Matthew Russell Lee, Patreon Book Substack
SDNY COURTHOUSE, August 8 – After Alexander Mashinsky of Celsius was arrested on July 13, US Attorney Damian Williams held a press conference.
Inner City Press asked him to explain his office's thinking in agreeing to release on bail for Sam Bankman-Fried and Shakeeb Ahmed, for example, but demanding and obtaining the ongoing pre-trial detention of Avi Eisenberg and Miles Guo.
US Attorney Williams responded that every case is different. Inner City Press asked if his office would in the afternoon be seeking the detention of, or agreeing to release, Mashinsky. He declined to say either way, saying you will soon see.
(Inner City Press ran to the Magistrates Court, but found the Assistant US Attorney there agreeing to release, with location monitoring, Charlie Javice's Frank co-defendant Olivier Amar).
At 2:45 pm the arraignment began, followed the the SDNY AUSAs' deal that Mashinsky would be released right after on bond. Inner City Press was there, thread:
Mashinsky is brought out by 2 US Marshals. He's in a grey polo shirt and has two defense lawyers. One goes over and whispers with AUSAs - one of whom then asks if there'll be a court reporter.
All rise!
Magistrate Judge Ona T. Wang: Mr Mashinsky, can you speak English? Mashinsky: Yes. Judge: How do you plead, to the 7 counts? Mashinsky's lawyer: Not guilty.
Assistant US Attorney: We have a joint proposal for bail: $40 million personal recognizance bond secured by Manhattan residence and brokerage account at First Republic. Less of a flight risk than Avi Eisenberg? Guo?
AUSA: Defendant would have a week to perfect the lien against the residence and the First Republic account. His wife would have until the end of the day tomorrow to sign. Note: Some said she would be here in the courtroom (like Curtis White's). But she is not.
Next was July 25 at 11 am. Inner City Press was there, thread:
OK - at Celsius' Mashinsky's criminal case, he has Mark Mukasey at defense table. Inner City Press is covering this and other crypto cases
There are three prosecutors at the front table (or, 2 AUSAs and an agent), and one AUSA in back of the courtroom gallery. Mashinsky whispering with Mukasey - as Trevor Milton of Nikola did, at trial (still waiting for his sentencing)
All rise!
AUSA: Mr. Mukasey has just been retained last night, we are talking with him and are ready to go with rolling production of discovery once a protective order is signed. Judge Koeltl enters 5f order on Brady and Giglio. AUSA: Mr Mashinsky is charged with seven crimes about Celsius, which allowed investors to house and store crypto on its platform. They'd get returns in the form of so-called rewards. It was misrepresentation
AUSA: Mr. Mashinky regularly lied. His co-defendant and he manipulated the CEL token, its trading volume and value. That's securities fraud. The co-defendant is a resident of Israel, we are in touch with his US based counsel and the unit that handles extradition
AUSA: We have no time table for extradition. Discovery is two to three terabytes, and many videos, hour-long sessions called AMAs, Ask Mashinsky Anythings... There are media interviews [echo of Nikola trial of Trevor Milton- he lost but has still no been sentenced
AUSA: Mr. Mukasey tells us he has some lessons learned from our office, that's very helpful [!] Discovery in 6 to 8 weeks.
Judge: A next conference? AUSA: Early October. Courtroom deputy: Oct 11 at 11 am. Mukasey: We have a conference before Judge Oetken, FPTC
Courtroom deputy: Tues Oct 3 at 11. Mukasey: I usually ask for a trial date at this point, because I'm not a delay kind of guy. But I'll wait to October... Judge: That date is quickly than I usually do. We'll set one then, so you can block out your schedule.
Mukasey: We're still working on bail. My client had an FBI raid on his house, it freaked out his wife. We'll take it to the Magistrate. Judge: I saw the letter to extend time. I prefer to have the Magistrate judge deal with it so I'm available for appeals
Mukasey: You won't get boilerplate motions. We'll be discerning and we'll be quick. Judge: OK. We're adjourned.
More on Substack here
On August 8, the US Attorney's Office filed a proposed protective order - 26 days after arrest and presentment - and a letter agreeing to a modification of bail terms, dropping the requirement that the bond be secured by Mashinsky's First Republic account and instead adding GPS monitoring and a requirement for pre-approval by Pretrial Services of any payment or transfer over $10,000 (legal fees need only be approved once, then "Not require such leave.")
From the SDNY press release on the indictment " COHEN-PAVON, an Israeli citizen and resident, is currently abroad."
This hung over the Olivier Aran Magistrates Court proceeding, the Mashinsky up in the afternoon.
The case is US v. Mashinsky, et al., 23-cr-347 (Koeltl / Wang) Indictment on Patreon here
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