Celsius is trying to hire its chief financial officer back at $92,000 a month, filings say

Embattled lending platform Celsius wants to bring back former CFO Rod Bolger and pay him around $92,000 a month, prorated over a period of at least six weeks. The struggling lender says it needs Bolger to help it navigate bankruptcy proceedings as counsel, according to a motion filed in the Southern District of New York.

“Due to Mr. Bolger’s familiarity with the Debtors’ business, the Debtors have requested, and Mr. Bolger has agreed pending court approval, to continue to provide advisory and consulting services to the Debtors pursuant to an advisory agreement,” it said in the documentation. “As consideration for the advisory services provided by Mr. Bolger, the Debtors agree to pay Mr. Bolger the sum of CAD $120,000 per month, prorated for partial months.”

The proposal goes on to say that during Bolger’s tenure, he led efforts to stabilize the business during turbulent market volatility this year, guide the financial aspects of the business and serve as the head of the company. Ultimately, it will be up to the Southern District of New York to decide whether Bolger should come on board with Celsius. A Zoom hearing has been set for Monday, August 8 to consider the proposal.

Bolger, a former CFO for Royal Bank of Canada and divisions of Bank of America, was previously with the company for five months before resigning on June 30, about three weeks after the platform halted all withdrawals, citing “extreme market conditions.” While working full-time with the company as CFO, this proposal shows he had a base salary of $750,000 and a performance-based cash bonus of up to 75% of his base, in addition to stock and token options, bringing the peak of his total earnings to around 1.3 million dollars.

The company then installed Chris Ferraro, then head of financial planning, analysis and investor relations for Celsius, to the position of chief financial officer. Within days of his appointment, the company filed for bankruptcy.

Once a titan of the crypto-lending world, Celsius is in bankruptcy proceedings and facing allegations that it ran a Ponzi scheme by paying early depositors with the money it received from new users.

At its peak in October 2021, CEO Alex Mashinsky said the crypto lender had $25 billion in assets under management. Now Celsius is down to $167 million “in cash on hand,” which it says will provide “ample liquidity” to support operations during the restructuring process. Celsius owes its users about $4.7 billion, according to the bankruptcy filing.

This filing also shows that Celsius has more than 100,000 creditors, some of whom lent the platform cash without collateral to back up the scheme. The list of the top 50 unsecured creditors includes Sam Bankman-Fried’s trading company Alameda Research, as well as an investment firm based in the Cayman Islands.

Retail investors have pleaded with the judge to help them recover some of their lost holdings, with some saying their life savings have effectively been wiped out.

A CPA and Celsius investor with a large balance captured on the Celsius platform filed an objection on Tuesday challenging Celsius’ proposal to reinstate its former CFO.