The founder and former CEO of bankrupt cryptocurrency lender Celsius Network, Alex Mashinsky, has been arrested and charged with fraud, while three federal regulatory agencies sued him and his company.

Mashinsky, who is 57 years old, was charged with seven criminal counts - including securities fraud, commodities fraud and wire fraud - while Celsius' former chief revenue officer, Roni Cohen-Pavon, was charged with four criminal counts, according to the indictment, which was unsealed on Thursday.

Mashinsky is one of several crypto moguls to be indicted in another blow for the industry, which has been experiencing a reckoning after a slump in crypto prices led several companies to collapse, including exchange giant FTX. Its founder Sam Bankman-Fried was charged with fraud last year, and has pleaded not guilty.

The U.S. Attorney's Office in Manhattan said it would hold a press conference to provide details on the charges against Mashinsky and Cohen-Pavon. Celsius filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in July last year after customers rushed to withdraw deposits as crypto prices fell. Many have been unable to access their funds for more than a year.

Mashinsky and Cohen-Pavon were charged with market manipulation of the New Jersey-based company's crypto token, known as Cel, as well as a fraudulent scheme to manipulate the price of the cryptocurrency and wire fraud related to the manipulation of the token, according to the indictment. Prosecutors alleged Mashinsky also personally reaped approximately $42 million in proceeds from selling his holdings of the Cel token.

In a related development, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) sued Mashinsky and Celsius on Thursday, according to a court filing, alleging he and his firm raised billions of dollars through the sale of unregistered crypto securities and misled investors about the financial state of the privately held company.

The SEC, along with other regulators which also filed lawsuits Thursday, accused Mashinsky and his company of touting Celsius as safe - akin to a traditional bank - even as they took increasingly risky steps to deliver promised high yields on customer deposits.