According to the applicable guidelines regarding the judgment, Mashinsky could face up to 30 years in prison. However, federal judges are obliged to take into account various additional factors when they come to the judgment, including the features and personal history of the defendant, the probability that they can defend again and so on.
“This is a complicated mosaic of facts to submit a fair sentence,” says Timothy Howard, partner of Freshfields’s law office and a former prosecutor from Up-to-date York in Up-to-date York.
Before the trial, Mashinsky’s legal representatives submitted a judge’s request for a verdict of only 366 days, citing his acceptance of guilt, military service in Israel, deprivation of which he experienced in childhood and external market factors that contributed to the fall of Celsius.
“In this matter, it is not about an arrogant, greedy Swindler who thought that he could escape from the theft of hard-earned money to satisfy his own hedonistic pleasures,” they argued Mashinsky’s lawyers in the court’s report. “These are post-hocshallow and bold clues that do not apply here. “
Meanwhile, he asked the judge to impose a 20-year prison sentence. Despite admitting guilty and admitting some lies, Mashinsky did not show repentance for his offenses, prosecutors claimed. They argued, he did not deceive the unconsciousness of his clients.
“His crimes were not a product of negligence, naivety or bad luck. They were the result of intentional, calculated decisions about lying, cheating and theft in the pursuit of a personal fortune,” wrote prosecutors their application. “He abandoned all appearances of recognizing his permanent offense … This deep lack of remorse emphasizes the constant danger he creates.”
The turning difference between the judgments requested by the defense and the prosecutor’s office reflects the dispute between the two sides of the nature of Mashinsky’s offense: namely, whether the founder of Celsius was guilty of a handful of poorly defeated lies-to which he already admitted to a common and extensive Raur campaign.
“Where there was a request, if there are factual considerable, they are often relatively small, and the core of the conduct is clear,” says Katherine Reilly, partner of the Pryor Cashman office, who previously managed the submitted fraud and cyber criminals in Sudy. “But here the defense really tried to solve that the crime is narrower than the government claims.”
By asking for only an annual prison sentence and granting only very narrow offenses, Mashinsky and his advisers “walked on the line,” says Howard. “This is a strategic decision that the defender must make. You must balance the recommendation of your client about the lowest possible sentence, while maintaining some credibility towards the judge,” he says.
In its reports, the government made direct comparisons between Mashinsky and various other convicted fraudsters, including Bankman himself, who was sentenced last year to 25 years in prison for its role in the fraud, which caused the fall of his exchange of cryptocurrencies, FTX. In their application, Mashinsky lawyers tried to create as much distance as possible between their client and Bankman. “Although there may be some superficial similarities, these two cases of cryptocurrencies and their relevant accused are nothing,” they assured. Defense argued that the key difference is that Mashinsky was not accused of embezzlement or theft of customer funds.
“This discrepancy gets into the actual disputes presented in the applications,” says Reilly. “Were there a few mistakes in judgment to try to improve the ship? Or is it a really fraudulent platform full of complacency?”
Ultimately, the judge proved to be unimposed for the version of Mashinsky’s events, ruling that the severity of his crimes and the scope of damage caused to the victims justified a significant prison judgment.
After receiving the Mashinsky judgment, he will be temporarily released while the prison office chooses the appropriate object. Usually, accused of white collars, such as Mashinsky, live with other criminals without violence, say legal experts.
In the federal system, it is not possible to dismiss conditional. When the clock begins to tick during Mashinsky in prison, the best he can hope is early release from good behaviors, but usually only after 85 percent of his sentence.
Guided in a very reduced sentence, Mashinsky followed with a “risky strategy,” Howard says, creating for prosecutors the ability to demonstrate that he grossly minimized his behavior. “It really shoots a hole on the ship.”