Celsius Accuses Former Money Manager of Theft

On Tuesday, defunct crypto lender Celsius filed a countersuit against former money manager Jason Stone claiming that he stole millions from Celsius wallets and allegedly “pocketed seven-figure returns.” The countersuit comes only weeks after Stone filed a lawsuit against Celsius.

Celsius, which filed for bankruptcy last month after freezing customer assets, claims that Stone, founder of Keyfi Inc., lied about his investing expertise and was incompetent in managing the firm’s assets. The company is also accusing Stone of theft. The court filing says that Celsius lent Stone assets that he would use for staking purposes and the company later asked for the funds back. The firm claims that not all the funds were returned and a “substantial gap remained.” The company asserts that rather than stoking tokens, Stone instead used them to buy NFTs. Celsius insists:

As Celsius only later would learn, Stone’s repeated assurances that he could, and would, return all of Celsius’ coins were lies designed to conceal the fact that he either had lost or stolen a substantial number of coins.

The court filing claims that Stone leveraged sanctioned mixing application Tornado Cash to hide onchain movements, adding:

Stone and Keyfi laundered millions of dollars of Celsius property (or its proceeds) through Tornado Cash on dozens of occasions.

Attorney for Celsius said in the court filing that:

[Stone took] many tens of millions of dollars from Celsius wallets, misappropriated crypto assets to buy and steal non-fungible tokens (NFTs) and pocketed seven-figure returns.

Stone’s lawyer, Kyle Roche, however refuted the claims by Celsius saying:

As alleged by Keyfi in the complaint it filed last month, the compensation that Keyfi received (including in the form of NFTs) was expressly authorized by Celsius’s CEO Alexander Mashinsky. The transactions at the center of their complaint were not only publicly visible, but also advertised by Mr. Stone on Twitter. In fact, after Mr. Stone advertised these purchases, Celsius and Mr. Mashinsky sent Keyfi tens of millions more to deploy in defi.

Roche finally added that:

Celsius’s most recent filing is an attempt to rewrite history and use Keyfi and Mr. Stone as a scapegoat for their organizational incompetence.

Disclaimer: This article is provided for informational purposes only. It is not offered or intended to be used as legal, tax, investment, financial, or other advice.