Roni Cohen-Pavon, the former chief revenue officer of collapsed crypto lender Celsius Network, will not be going to prison.
On May 13, Judge John G. Koeltl of the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York sentenced Cohen-Pavon to time served — meaning he walks free — along with one year of supervised release and a forfeiture of $1.07 million tied to proceeds from his crimes.
The Deal That Changed Everything
Cohen-Pavon pleaded guilty in September 2023 to fraud and conspiracy to manipulate the price of Celsius's native CEL token. But unlike his former boss, he chose to cooperate fully with federal prosecutors.
That cooperation proved decisive.
Prosecutors credited Cohen-Pavon with providing "substantial assistance" in building the case against Celsius founder and CEO Alex Mashinsky — who was sentenced to 12 years in federal prison and ordered to forfeit $48 million. Mashinsky had pleaded guilty in December 2024 to commodity fraud and market manipulation, admitting to lying to customers and artificially inflating CEL's price to enrich himself while the platform was heading toward collapse.
The $1.07 Million Forfeiture
Under a court-approved forfeiture order, Cohen-Pavon will surrender $1,070,000 — a fraction of what Mashinsky was ordered to pay. The forfeiture represents proceeds directly tied to his role in the fraud scheme, with potential offsets from assets still held under Celsius's ongoing bankruptcy proceedings.
Who Is Roni Cohen-Pavon?
Cohen-Pavon served as Celsius's Chief Revenue Officer during the platform's high-flying years, when it was marketing itself as the future of banking and promising depositors double-digit yields on their crypto holdings.
Behind the scenes, prosecutors alleged, Cohen-Pavon and other executives were secretly manipulating CEL's token price — buying up supply to prop up the value and preserve their own holdings while the company's financial position deteriorated. Celsius froze withdrawals in June 2022 and filed for bankruptcy the following month, wiping out billions in customer funds.
What Happens Next
With Mashinsky behind bars and Cohen-Pavon under supervised release, the Celsius saga has now largely concluded in the courtroom. The harder question — recovering funds for the roughly 700,000 creditors who lost money — continues through bankruptcy proceedings.
For Cohen-Pavon, the sentence is a reminder that in federal fraud cases, cooperation is often the most valuable currency a defendant can spend.
