US prosecutors subpoenaed Celsius days after it blocked withdrawals
US prosecutors subpoenaed Celsius Network just days after the now-bankrupt crypto lender froze customer withdrawals in June in one of a range of federal inquiries surrounding the company.
The subpoena was issued on June 15, the lender disclosed in a Manhattan bankruptcy court filing last week. Celsius had halted withdrawals three days earlier, trapping the savings of hundreds of thousands of customers.
The court filing said the subpoena was issued by a federal grand jury in Manhattan. Federal grand juries are used by Department of Justice prosecutors when conducting criminal investigations and can potentially issue indictments.
UST and Luna were a pair of interrelated tokens that collapsed in May, sparking a wave of subsequent insolvencies across the crypto industry. Celsius has said it avoided significant losses on its UST and Luna trading by exiting its trades as the tokens collapsed.
The DoJ, CFTC and FTC inquiries have not been previously reported. The Financial Times revealed in July that the SEC had requested records from Celsius regarding certain trades made by its top executives. Bloomberg reported in January that the company had been caught up in a broader investigation by the SEC into crypto lenders.
[email protected]
This story originally appeared on: Financial Times - Author:Kadhim Shubber
