Alex Mashinsky, founder of the now-defunct cryptocurrency lending platform Celsius, is attempting to overturn his previous 12-year prison sentence. According to a new motion filed in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York, Mashinsky is asking the court to overturn the sentence, citing negligence and conflict of interest on the grounds of his defense attorney's actions.

The motion points to a conflict of interest among lawyers.

The application, handwritten by Mashinsky, cited legal grounds such as "defeat" and "fruit of the poisonous tree." In accompanying materials, he stated that the law firm Mukasey & Young LLP was facing financial difficulties at the time, which affected its judgment during the representation process.

In the filing, Mashinsky stated that the law firm's undisclosed financial difficulties led to an "inevitable and absolute conflict of interest" between it and its clients, and that this conflict permeated several key decisions in its defense strategy.

The controversy has drawn the attention of SBF's related agents.

Mashinsky further stated that the conflict was related to the law firm's previous representation of FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried. He argued that this agency relationship constituted an inescapable conflict because SBF was involved in market manipulation of the CEL token and stETH, actions that allegedly harmed Celsius.

After Celsius suspended user withdrawals in 2022, a large amount of customer funds were frozen, and the company subsequently filed for bankruptcy protection. The turmoil surrounding the platform's collapse continued to escalate, and a year later, Mashinsky was arrested and faced multiple charges from the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, and the Federal Trade Commission.

He had previously pleaded guilty and been banned from the industry.

Some of the charges alleged that Mashinsky defrauded clients of approximately $42 million. He subsequently pleaded guilty to charges of commodity fraud and securities fraud, and admitted in court that his actions were wrong.

Despite calls from some creditors for a harsher sentence, the court ultimately sentenced Mashinsky to 12 years in prison. Now, he hopes to overturn that verdict through this new motion.

Last month, Mashinsky reached a $10 million settlement with the FTC and was permanently banned from the crypto industry. The FTC had previously awarded him $4.7 billion, but most of that amount has been suspended, and the current requirement to pay is $10 million.