NEW YORK’S UP-TO-$35 MILLION DEAL WITH CELSIUS FOUNDER MASHINSKY CAN PAY THE STATE NOTHING — $25 MILLION IS SATISFIED IF HE PAYS THE DOJ $10 MILLION — THE OTHER $10 MILLION IS OWED ONLY IF HIS PRISON TERM IS CUT, GOOD TIME CREDITS INCLUDED

On October 8, 2026, New York’s attorney general filed a consent order with Alex Mashinsky, the Celsius founder serving 12 years in federal prison for fraud. On October 9 her office said it secured up to $35 million from him and banned him for life from the securities, commodities and crypto business. Read the order and almost all of that money comes with a condition.

The case is about bitcoin people handed over. The order quotes his federal plea: a scheme “to induce investors to sell their Bitcoin to Celsius in exchange for an interest in Celsius’s Earn Program.” Customers gave up their coins for a promise from the company holding them. The state says more than 26,000 of those customers were New Yorkers.

Now look at who pays. Paragraph 2 sets $25 million in damages, then says it “shall be deemed satisfied” once he pays $10 million to the DOJ under his federal forfeiture order. Paragraph 3 sets another $10 million, owed only if his prison term is cut. The cuts it lists include good time credits, earned time credits, First Step Act release and home confinement. If he pays the DOJ and serves every day, New York collects nothing.

The ban also leaves him one door. Paragraph 7 bars him from the business “other than for Defendant Alex Mashinsky’s own personal purchase or sale.” Celsius creditors have recovered more than $3.4 billion through the bankruptcy, the state says. The headline number is a bill that only comes due if he breaks a promise. At the time of this writing, bitcoin was $82,300.