According to Matthew Lee, the one-man band behind Inner City Press, the atmosphere in the courtroom of Celsius founder Alex Mashinsky's case is kind of “meh” compared to FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried's more dramatic trial.
But Lee could work in Mashinsky's favor, potentially leading to a lighter sentence. The disgruntled ex-Celsius boss faces the same fraud charges as the SBF and decades in prison.
“He seems like a much older, stronger person. I know there are a lot of people who don't like him, but it's a different feeling,” he said of Mashinsky, adding that his whole aura is “much less flashy.”
“It's like a lot of white-collar defendants,” Lee Mashinsky said. He casually goes to trial with little attention from the public except for the Celsius victims online. They really want to know WTF is going on with their money.
According to Lee, all of this is the exact opposite of Bankman-Fried.
“There's something special about your face in the Bankman-Fried approach that gives it a higher number. [of years] Rather than Mashinsky.
Lee is the heartbeat of Energy City Press, a blog that has fallen down a wormhole in time since 1996, but has gained a large audience thanks to its high-profile courtroom coverage. He attended every court hearing for Bankman-Fried and Mashinsky last year.
His live-tweeting of the sessions became a hit in the crypto industry and earned him 257,400 followers on X.
One of the main differences he noticed was the frenzy of paparazzi surrounding Bankman-Fried compared to the attention Machinsky was receiving. There is no “photographers' crowd” waiting for Bankman-Fried and the curve. Locks.
Lee has a knack for noticing the smallest details on the court that others can't see.
Banman-Fried brought up the silly mistakes he made in the trial and said one of the reasons he stumbled in front of the jury was because he was “too arrogant.”
“He was correcting the grammar of the questions, and I don't think that went down well with the jury.”
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Lee started Inner City Press 37 years ago in 1987, so he's been around the block.
From the recent criminal trial of Donald Trump to the former president of Honduras accused of taking bribes from violent drug cartels, he is at the forefront of covering New York's legal dramas.
Lee says his following has grown over the years because he's unbiased and still goes beyond his speech to give readers insight into the nuances of the courtroom.
“What I try to do is I think even in those Trump cases, people are always like, ‘You have to say that's scary.' I think I try to frame the conversation.”
Lee's recent courtroom dramas involving one-time crypto titans like Mashinsky, Bankman-Fried and Terraform Labs' Do Kwon have seen crypto fans flock to Lee's account to be the first to get real-time courtroom updates.
Fortunately, Lee finds crypto legal battles to be among the “more interesting ones.”
What kind of content do you create?
Lee explains that if you're into crypto and law and keep up with the latest crazy fraud scandals happening in real time, his account is accurate.
“I'm not following the price of Bitcoin overnight. So you'll never find it here,” he said.
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“You don't get any promotion. I'm not saying people shouldn't want to find that. I'm just saying you won't find that at Inner City Press,” he adds.
What you'll find, however, is that if there's a crypto trial going down in New York, it might cover it.
“I'll do my best to cover them, especially if they're here in New York. If they're somewhere else like CZ in Washington state, I can't physically cover them,” he explains.
He's still trying to cover the big issues elsewhere, so he'll have to hurry a little to get those court records up to date with content ready for his readers.
“I get a lot of records very early, but most of them are sealed. So, I try to keep certain things unpackaged.”
What kind of content do you like?
Lee said he follows all crypto news sites to keep up with the fast-moving and sometimes chaotic world of crypto.
“There's a list of all the crypto news sites I follow on Twitter,” he explained.
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But Lee won't name specific crypto leaders who are supportive in the industry, fearing they might become the next Bankman-Fried or Mashinsky.
“There are so many personalities, I don't seem to be withholding any blessings or anything,” he laughs.
Predictions?
Li predicted that former Binance CEO Changpeng “CZ” Zhao will spend time behind bars, but not in the same way as Mashinsky and Bankman-Fried.
I think he is [CZ] I will some time but it will be nothing like Sam Bankman-Fried's sentence, for which the proof seems to be coming up with new ideas about what to do.
As for Bankman-Fried, even though the U.S. government is pushing for a half-century sentence, Lee believes it could end up being much less than that.
Bankuman-Fried thinks that's because the new attorneys, Mark Mucasey and Torey Young, are “much more aggressive” than the previous attorneys.
“I think it will be more than 10 [years] But I don't know how much more than 10.
Lee is inviting everyone to join his X account this week, March 28, the day of Bankman-Fried's sentencing, where he's guaranteed to deliver almost every juicy update.
“Unless there's a storm. I will be tweeting with great respect,” he laughs.
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Ciaran Lyon
Ciaran Lyons is an Australian crypto journalist. He is also a freelance comedian and has been a radio and TV presenter on Triple J, SBS and The Project.
