Employees of a cryptocurrency startup report fraud with tokens within the company

Former employees of the Celsius cryptocurrency platform said that the company’s problems began long before it declared bankruptcy — Celsius representatives manipulated the market and engaged in fraud with the CEL token.

According to former Celsius employees, the company «provided services that people really needed» but was unable to manage risks. The crypto lender manipulated depositors' funds by promising a loan rate of up to 18%, and as a result, «did not fulfill its obligations.»

According to Timothy Cradle, former Celsius director of financial crime control, the company’s executives openly stated that they were «pumping» the CEL token. Representatives of the crypto lender traded the token to manipulate its price, creating artificial interest around it. Celsius CEO Alex Mashinsky supported the token by advertising it, talking about the benefits of CEL and encouraging users to invest in it.

Timothy Cradle is not the first person to work with Celsius and publicly accuse the platform of fraud. Recently, a former contractor of the platform, Jason Stone, CEO of DeFi company KeyFi, filed a lawsuit against Celsius — according to Stone, Celsius did not fulfill its agreements and deceived customers using their investments. Due to the inability to fulfill its own obligations and «legally handle the funds of customers and partners,» the cryptocurrency platform failed to pay KeyFi a «large amount of money.» As a result, Jason Stone filed a lawsuit.