Crypto Lender Celsius CFO Arrested on Charges of Money Laundering

Yaron Shalem, the chief financial officer of crypto lending firm Celsius, was arrested last week along with seven others in connection with the Moshe Hogeg case. The firm confirmed the arrest on Twitter, saying it had been “made aware” of a police investigation led by Israeli forces, but didn’t disclose the name of the employee involved.

That employee is Celsius’ CFO, Yaron Shalem, included along with 17 others in an appendix to a letterhead document of the Israel Police’s National Fraud Investigation Unit.

Massive Money Laundering Scheme Foiled

Moshe Hogeg is a crypto entrepreneur behind the blockchain smartphone startup Sirin Labs. On November 18, he was arrested for money laundering, wire fraud, historical sexual assault, cryptocurrency-related scams and other charges. An undercover investigation led by Israeli Police found that Hogeg had laundered hundreds of millions of shekels through cryptocurrency.

Eight suspects were arrested on suspicion of committing fraudulent offences in the field of cryptocurrencies, amounting to hundreds of millions of shekels, following an undercover investigation conducted in recent months at the National Fraud Investigation Unit … and the Diamond Unit of the Tax Authority. According to the suspicion, [the suspects] acted systematically to commit investor fraud in a number of ventures in the field.

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Israeli Police, Twitter

It’s clear that Celsius is referring to Shalem, whether or not it wants to admit it. What isn’t clear is what charges he’s facing, or the identities of the other people arrested with him.

Celsius has been under the scope of several US regulators for selling “unregistered securities”. Shalem’s suspension comes shortly after the firm revealed its Series B funding round had been incremented to US$750 million, giving the company a $3.25 billion valuation in October.

A similar case arose in Australia when a Sydney man was arrested earlier this year for running a multimillion-dollar crime syndicate.