Pressure Mounts on FTX Founder Sam Bankman-Fried as Former Director of Engineering Pleads Guilty – Here's What You Need to Know
Nishad Singh, the former director of engineering at now-defunct crypto exchange FTX, has pleaded guilty to U.S. criminal charges, agreeing to cooperate with the investigation into FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried.
Singh pleaded guilty to six conspiracy charges, including conspiracy to commit wire fraud, conspiracy to commit money laundering, and conspiracy to violate federal campaign finances laws on Tuesday, according to a report by Reuters.
"I am unbelievably sorry for my role in all of this," he reportedly said, acknowledging that he was aware that Bankman-Fried's hedge fund, Alameda Research, was borrowing FTX customer funds without their knowledge by mid-2022.
The former FTX executive reportedly traveled back from the Bahamas in the wake of FTX's collapse in November in part to assist the U.S. investigation. He was released on a $250,000 bond and said he would relinquish all the proceeds from the scheme. Damian Williams, US attorney for the Southern District of New York, said:
“Today’s guilty plea underscores once again that the crimes at FTX were vast in scope and consequence. They rocked our financial markets with a multibillion dollar fraud. And they corrupted our politics with tens of millions of dollars in illegal straw campaign contributions."
Singh is the third member of Bankman-Fried's inner circle to plead guilty and cooperate with the probe. Prior to this, former Alameda Research CEO Caroline Ellison agreed to plead guilty to seven offenses, while Gary Wang, FTX’s former chief technology officer, pleaded guilty to criminal charges.
"He wants to do everything he can to make things right for victims, including by assisting the government to the best of his ability," Singh's lawyers, Andrew Goldstein and Russell
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