{"id":577721,"date":"2022-10-03T13:21:51","date_gmt":"2022-10-03T12:21:51","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/en.ethereumworldnews.com\/?p=577721"},"modified":"2022-10-03T13:22:02","modified_gmt":"2022-10-03T12:22:02","slug":"doj-objects-celsius-motion","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/en.ethereumworldnews.com\/doj-objects-celsius-motion\/","title":{"rendered":"DOJ Joins Other Regulators in Objecting to Celsius&#8217; Motion To Return Funds"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<ul><li>The United States Department of Justice (DOJ) objected to Celsius&#8217; motion to restart withdrawals for select customers and sell its stablecoin holdings.<\/li><li>Other authorities in the United States have also objected to Celsius&#8217; motion and wish for any critical decisions to take place only after an independent examiner report.<\/li><li>The DOJ has taken multiple steps to eliminate criminal activity using crypto and recently formed a network of federal prosecutors focusing solely on the matter.<\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p>Bankrupt lending platform Celsius Network has hit another obstacle in its bid to navigate bankruptcy proceedings, as the United States Department of Justice (DOJ) has filed an objection to a motion. The DOJ has objected to <a href=\"https:\/\/en.ethereumworldnews.com\/celsius-network-files-to-return-a-portion-of-funds-back-to-its-users\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Celsius\u2019 bid<\/a> to restart withdrawals for select customers and its desire to sell its stablecoin holdings. Celsius is looking to return $48 million worth of assets to customers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The DOJ submitted <a href=\"https:\/\/cases.stretto.com\/public\/x191\/11749\/PLEADINGS\/1174909302280000000050.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener nofollow\">the filing<\/a> to the Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of New York. William Harrington, the U.S. Trustee for the DOJ, said there was a lack of transparency and that any critical decisions cannot happen without some more insight into Celsius\u2019 finances.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The objection follows a filing by several other American authorities, including <a href=\"https:\/\/en.ethereumworldnews.com\/vermont-regulator-says-celsius-network-is-likely-to-be-deeply-insolvent\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">the Vermont Department of Financial Regulation<\/a>, the Texas State Securities Board, and the Texas Department of Banking, all of which objected to any sales of stablecoins by Celsius.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Harrington says that the motions are premature and should take place after an independent examiner report has been filed. The filing also states that the parties involved require additional information to assess the impact that distribution or sale would have.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The independent examiner report will cover such matters as the holdings of Celsius and its storage and \u201cwhy there was a change in account offerings beginning in April 2022 from the Earn Program to the Custody Service for some customers while others were placed in a \u2018Withhold Account.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2>DOJ Actively Working Towards Curbing Crypto Crimes<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>The DOJ has been ramping up its efforts to clamp down on crimes related to cryptocurrencies. There has been a noticeable uptick in these actions this year, including the creation of a national network of prosecutors who focus solely on cryptocurrency-related crimes. Called <a href=\"https:\/\/www.justice.gov\/opa\/pr\/justice-department-announces-report-digital-assets-and-launches-nationwide-network\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener nofollow\">the Digital Asset Coordinator (DAC) Network<\/a>, it consists of over 150 federal prosecutors led by the DOJ\u2019s National Cryptocurrency Enforcement Team.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>At the time it announced the new team, it also <a href=\"https:\/\/www.justice.gov\/ag\/page\/file\/1535236\/download\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener nofollow\">published a report<\/a> on crypto crimes. The report talked about the efforts by bad actors to make use of the crypto market and proposed actions to enhance the ability to gather evidence and begin prosecutions. It also referred to the role of NFTs and DeFi in facilitating crime.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>As for more action-oriented efforts, the Delaware DOJ <a href=\"https:\/\/news.delaware.gov\/2022\/09\/28\/investor-protection-unit-grills-pig-butchering-scammers\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener nofollow\">froze funds<\/a> of 23 entities involved in \u201cpig butchering scams.\u201d These entities were sent a cease-and-desist order, which is just part of the broader effort to take action against crypto scams.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The United States Department of Justice (DOJ) objected to Celsius&#8217; motion to restart withdrawals for select customers and sell its stablecoin holdings. Other authorities in the United States have also objected to Celsius&#8217; motion and wish for any critical decisions to take place only after an independent examiner report. The DOJ has taken multiple steps to eliminate criminal activity using crypto and recently formed a network of federal prosecutors focusing solely on the matter. Bankrupt lending platform Celsius Network has [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":52,"featured_media":573234,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[947,2],"tags":[7345,48,83,108730,108729],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/en.ethereumworldnews.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/577721"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/en.ethereumworldnews.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/en.ethereumworldnews.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/en.ethereumworldnews.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/52"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/en.ethereumworldnews.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=577721"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/en.ethereumworldnews.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/577721\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":577722,"href":"https:\/\/en.ethereumworldnews.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/577721\/revisions\/577722"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/en.ethereumworldnews.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/573234"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/en.ethereumworldnews.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=577721"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/en.ethereumworldnews.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=577721"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/en.ethereumworldnews.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=577721"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}