According to CoinMeta, New York Attorney General Letitia James announced that former CEO of the Celsius network, Alex Massinsky, has been permanently banned from entering the securities, commodities, and cryptocurrency industries, along with a fine of $35 million. The state of New York can only recover this fine if Massinsky violates the agreement reached with the federal government. James filed a lawsuit against Massinsky in 2023, accusing him of misleading hundreds of thousands of depositors, including more than 26,000 New Yorkers, regarding the safety of their funds on the cryptocurrency lending platform. According to the Attorney General's office, the $35 million fine is divided into two conditional payments. The first condition is that if Massinsky fails to hand over $10 million in illegal gains to the federal government, he will owe the state government $25 million. The second $10 million fine will only take effect if Massinsky does not complete his prison sentence. Massinsky is currently serving a 144-month prison term after pleading guilty to commodity fraud and manipulating the price of the CEL tokens of Celsius.