Nikhil Wahi, accused of receiving insider trading information from his brother Ishan Wahi, a former project manager at crypto exchange Coinbase, has been sentenced to 10-months in prison.
Ishan, 32, has pleaded not guilty to federal charges of insider trading and Ramani remains at large. Both Ishan and Ramani stare at a maximum sentence of 20 years each. The Wahi brothers were arrested in Seattle, Washington State, where they were living, and presented in the US District Court for the Western District of Washington.
Ishan worked at Coinbase as a product manager assigned to a Coinbase asset listing team starting in October 2020. He was involved in the highly confidential process of listing crypto assets on Coinbase’s exchanges and had detailed and advanced knowledge of which crypto assets Coinbase was planning to list and the timing of public announcements about those crypto asset listings.
According to the US authorities, on at least 14 occasions, Ishan knew in advance both that Coinbase planned to list particular crypto assets and the timing of its public announcements of those asset listings. He misappropriated that Coinbase confidential information by tipping either his brother, Nikhil, or Ramani, “so that they could place profitable trades in those crypto assets in advance of Coinbase’s public listing announcements”.
After his guilty plea in September, U.S. Attorney Damian Williams said this was the first instance in which “a defendant has admitted guilt in an insider trading case involving the cryptocurrency markets.” By contrast, Ishan Wahi pled not guilty in August. Nikhil’s 10-month sentence is a far cry from the 20-year maximum that perpetrators of wire fraud can face, but still a disappointment for the brother, who sought no jail time whatsoever. On the other hand, prosecutors hoped to see him in prison for as many as 16 months. After his sentence, Nikhil will be deported to India.
Coinbase called in Ishan Wahi for a meeting on May 16, 2022 over suspicions that he could be involved in such illicit activity. He attempted to flee to India the night before this meeting but was stopped by airport security. Coinbase was forced to lay off another 950 employees on Tuesday due to the current economic climate.
According to the US authorities, on at least 14 occasions, Ishan knew in advance both that Coinbase planned to list particular crypto assets and the timing of its public announcements of those asset listings. He misappropriated that Coinbase confidential information by tipping either his brother, Nikhil, or Ramani, “so that they could place profitable trades in those crypto assets in advance of Coinbase’s public listing announcements”.
