During a hearing in a Manhattan federal court, Nishad Singh’s attorneys said their client was willing to plead guilty to several charges, including wire fraud and conspiracy to commit money laundering.
Nishad Singh, Former Director of Engineering of bankrupt FTX, is ready to plead guilty to several criminal charges brought against him by the U.S. Attorney’s Office. This was reported by Reuters.
Singh expressed his willingness to plead guilty to several counts:
- wire fraud;
- conspiracy to commit fraud (three counts);
- conspiracy to commit money laundering;
- conspiracy to commit fraud by violating U.S. campaign finance laws.
According to Andrew Goldstein and Russell Capone, Singh’s attorneys, their client is willing to cooperate with the investigation to the best of his ability. “He wants to do everything he can to make things right for victims,” Goldstein said at the February 28 hearing.
Nishad Singh became FTX’s engineering director in 2019, having previously worked at Alameda Research. Singh told investigators that in 2020, he allegedly changed the crypto exchange’s software to block automatic sales of Alameda assets when the company began to lose too much borrowed money. Those changes allowed Alameda to continue borrowing from FTX without having to secure the loans. The SEC said that by changing the code, Alameda got a “virtually unlimited line of credit” at FTX. Also, FTX thereby lent Alameda billions of dollars of customer funds.
Singh became the third former FTX executive and close associate of Sam Bankman-Fried to plead guilty and actively cooperate with the investigation. Back in December 2022, Caroline Ellison, ex-CEO of Alameda, pleaded guilty to seven counts, and Gary Wang, FTX’s CTO, accepted responsibility for four of the charges.
Recall that the court charged SBF with eight counts of fraud and four counts of conspiracy to defraud. Sam Bankman-Fried pleads not guilty to any of the criminal charges against him.
