According to court documents filed on Friday, Steve Kokinos, the former CEO of Algorand, will take over as CEO of the organization that will take over Celsius’ activities and will sit on a board with two members of the insolvent crypto lender’s own creditor committee.As the cryptocurrency meltdown began to take hold in July of last year, Celsius filed for bankruptcy. At the moment, creditors are voting on whether to sell the company to Fahrenheit Holdings, which could result in a partial return of their investment.
In July 2022, Kokinos resigned from his position at the staking-based blockchain Algorand.Along with the hedge fund Arrington Capital and the mining company US Bitcoin, whose respective leaders Asher Genoot and Michael Arrington will also serve on the board, he is a co-owner of Fahrenheit.Scott Duffy and Thomas DiFiore, the two co-chairs of Celsius’ creditor committee, who were contacted at key points of the sale process to represent the interests of people owing money, and who were given the opportunity to appoint six of the nine board members, are now members of the NewCo board.
“Steve has been a serial entrepreneur and investor for over 25 years, founding and operating companies ranging from internet infrastructure, cloud software, communications, and crypto,” according to a brief resumé included in the court documents, which described him as the proposed CEO of the Delaware corporation, as yet unnamed but referred to in the filings as NewCo.
Scott Duffy and Thomas DiFiore, the two co-chairs of Celsius’ creditor committee, who were contacted at key points of the sale process to represent the interests of people owing money, and who were given the opportunity to appoint six of the nine board members, are now members of the NewCo board.Duffy and DiFiore did not consider their own nomination, which was made “after extensive consultations with the Committee’s legal and financial advisors,” according to the petition.
Other board members include Elizabeth LaPuma, who leads the audit committee at commercial real estate firm WeWork, Frederick Arnold, chairman of the holding company managing the estate of bankrupt Lehman Brothers, and Emmanuel Aidoo, an investment banker from Perella Weinberg who previously worked on the deal.The sale plan must receive approval from creditors by September 22.Alex Mashinsky, the former CEO of Celsius, was detained in July and has pled not guilty to allegations of securities fraud and manipulating the CEL coin