Three Celsius Network executives withdrew over $50 million worth of crypto before the bankruptcy

Celsius Network’s top three executives withdrew a total of $56.12 million in cryptocurrency just before going bankrupt.

Recent court documents reveal that the event happened between May and June 2022, just before the company stopped making withdrawals and filed for bankruptcy.

According to a Statement of Financial Affairs submitted late on Wednesday, October 5, former CEO Alex Mashinsky, former CSO Daniel Leon, and CTO Nuke Goldstein allegedly removed money represented by Bitcoin (BTC), Ether (ETH), USDC (USDC), and CEL (CEL) tokens from custody accounts.

The firm’s chief compliance officer, Oren Blonstein, its chief risk officer, Rodney Sunada-Wong, and its incoming CEO, Chris Ferraro, did not make any significant withdrawals during that time, according to the records of more than a dozen other officials.

Mashinsky withdrew about $10 million in cryptocurrencies in May 2022. Leon withdrew about $7 million between May 27 and May 31, with an additional $4 million in CEL designated as “collateral.” 

Around $13 million was withheld by Goldstein (plus an additional $7.8 million in CEL designated as “collateral”).

A month after freezing all customer withdrawals due to “extreme market conditions,” Celsius notably filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in July.

The documents made public on Wednesday mark the most recent development in the struggling crypto lender’s bankruptcy case.