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Ex-Coinbase manager pleads guilty in insider trading case
In what U.S. prosecutors have dubbed the first insider trading case involving cryptocurrencies, a former product manager for Coinbase Global Inc pled guilty on Tuesday, according to his defense attorney at a court hearing.
Ishan Wahi, 32, first entered a not guilty plea to two charges of conspiracy to conduct wire fraud but then changed his plea to guilty.
According to the prosecution, Wahi exchanged secret knowledge regarding upcoming announcements of new digital assets that Coinbase will enable customers trade with his brother Nikhil and their acquaintance Sameer Ramani.
Ishan Wahi said at the hearing in federal court in Manhattan on Tuesday, "I understood that Sameer Ramani and Nikhil Wahi would utilize that knowledge to make trading judgments." Misappropriating and distributing Coinbase's property was improper.
Nikhil Wahi and Ramani were accused of trading at least 14 times between June 2021 and April 2022 using ethereum blockchain wallets to obtain digital assets.
According to prosecutors, the statements frequently increased the value of the assets and produced criminal earnings of at least $1.5 million.
Nikhil Wahi was charged with conspiring to commit wire fraud in September and entered a guilty plea. In January, he was given a 10-month jail term. Ramani is untraceable.
Prosecutors agreed as part of a plea agreement that Ishan Wahi should serve between 36 and 47 months in jail in accordance with sentence guidelines. On May 10, U.S. District Judge Loretta Preska set the date for his sentence hearing.
One of the biggest cryptocurrency exchanges in the world is called Coinbase. According to the corporation, it informed law enforcement of its conclusions after an internal investigation into the trade.
Ishan Wahi requested a judge's dismissal of a related case from the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) on Monday, arguing that the claims amount to a "abuse of authority" on the part of the organization. Whether or not nine tokens posted on Coinbase were indeed securities and subject to SEC regulation is at contention.
A SEC representative refused to comment
Ishan Wahi admitted to the crimes on Tuesday, saying he didn't think any of the pertinent tokens were securities. Prosecutor Noah Solowiejczyk said that the issue of whether the tokens constitute securities was unrelated to the prosecution's case.
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