While the crypto world is shaken by a fundamental crisis, the United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York announced the unsealing of an Indictment charging the former Coinbase product manager Ishan Wahi, Nikhil Wahi, and Sameer Ramani with insider trading in crypto assets by using confidential Coinbase information about which crypto assets were scheduled to be listed on Coinbase. While Ishan Wahi and Nikhil Wahi were arrested on Thursday, Sameer Ramani remains at large. The U.S. SEC also filed a complaint against them.
The Case In A Nutshell
Ishan Wahi worked at Coinbase as a product manager assigned to a Coinbase asset listing team. 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 indictment, Ishan Wahi misappropriated confidential Coinbase information about planned listings by tipping either his brother, Nikhil Wahi or his friend Sameer Ramani so that they could place profitable trades in those crypto assets in advance of Coinbase’s public listing announcements.
They used anonymous Ethereum blockchain wallets to acquire crypto assets shortly before Coinbase publicly announced that it was listing or considering listing these crypto assets on its exchanges. As a result of the insider trading scheme, they generated realized and unrealized gains totaling at least approximately $1.5 million.
Charges And Maximum Sentence
- Ishan Wahi, 32, of Seattle, Washington, is charged with two counts of wire fraud conspiracy and two counts of wire fraud, each of which carries a maximum sentence of 20 years.
- Nikhil Wahi, 26, of Seattle, Washington, is charged with one count of wire fraud conspiracy and one count of wire fraud, each of which carries a maximum sentence of 20 years.
- Sameer Ramani, 33, of Houston, Texas, is charged with one count of wire fraud conspiracy and one count of wire fraud, each of which carries a maximum sentence of 20 years.
On May 11, 2022, Coinbase’s director of security operations emailed Ishan Wahi to inform him that he should appear for an in-person meeting. He tried to flee to India but was arrested at the airport by law enforcement agents.
