We just wrote up the final examiner report for Celsius. This ended up being a 3,000-word post, mainly because the report was loaded with comedy gold. You can read our full analysis on David’s blog. [David Gerard]
Celsius was not just fraudulent. It was an utterly incompetent investment business. Here’s what we cover:
- History of a scam, how Celsius started.
- CEL and the flywheel — Celsius’s main business was pumping CEL.
- Mashinsky knowingly and repeatedly lied to customers.
- The examiner doesn’t outright say that Celsius operated as a Ponzi, but she demonstrates that it did.
- Mashinsky was a horrible investor. Celsius invested 30% of its assets in GBTC just a few months before GBTC started trading at a permanent discount to NAV. He totally missed the boat on that one.
- Celsius used Quickbooks for its accounting, just like FTX.
- We fully expect Mashinsky to be indicted soon.
Amy Castor 
Meanwhile in FTX World:
The U.S. Trustee has a further motion in limine to strike the declaration of Brian D.
Glueckstein in Support of Debtors’ Objection to Motion of the United States Trustee for
Entry of Order Directing the Appointment of an Examiner [D.I. 613], because it was
untimely filed, as all objections to the Examiner Motion, along with supporting papers, were
required to be filed by January 25, 2022, and D.I. 613 was filed on February 3, 2023, one
business day before the hearing, and consists of 3855 pages. In addition, the documents
attached to D.I. 613 were not identified by the Debtors as exhibits to be used at the hearing
in the Debtors’ responses to the U.S. Trustee’s discovery in connection with the Examiner
Motion …
Yikes! I missed that. High drama…