Tidigare Coinbase Manager Bags Fängelse

• Ishan utnyttjade företagsinformation när han arbetade på Coinbase och hjälpte sin bror tjäna mer än $1 miljoner mellan 2021 och 2022.
• Ishan Wahi’s attorney urged the judge to consider his immigration status, arguing that his crime was a non-violent offense and he had no criminal history before his arrest.
• Ishan’s mother and other close relatives, as well as friends, attended the sentencing in person.

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US District Judge Loretta Preska has sentenced a former product manager at Coinbase, Ishan Wahi, 32, to 24 months in prison for insider trading. Ishan was arrested and charged in 2022 for wire fraud and providing insider information to his brother Nikhil Wahi and their friend Sameer Ramani about upcoming digital asset listings at Coinbase Global. Reports claim that the group made over $1 million in profit trading on Ishan’s information between 2021 and 2022.

Fallet är ett av de mest uppmärksammade kryptorelaterade brotten och det andra fallet med kryptoinsiderhandel förföljs av justitiedepartementet (DOJ). Nikhil anklagades för att ha konspirerat för att begå bedrägeri i september och angav en skyldig. Han fick tio månaders fängelse i januari. Ramani har dock inte hittats.

USA:s advokat Damian Williams sa i en påstående,

Ishan Wahi, a former Coinbase product manager, violated the trust placed in him by his employer by tipping others with valuable confidential information regarding Coinbase’s planned token listings. Today’s sentence should send a strong signal to all participants in the cryptocurrency markets that the laws decidedly do apply to them. The Southern District of New York will hold those who engage in insider trading to full account, regardless of whether their illegal conduct occurs in the equity markets or in the market for crypto assets.

Ishan’s Case to Serve as an Example

Judge Preska ordered Ishan to turn himself in by June 21 to serve his term at the New Jersey-based Fort Dix Federal Correctional Institution. Ishan had requested a sentence that was not longer than his brother’s, pointing to prior instances of insider trading that ended in minimal or no prison time.

7. Dokumentet anger att Nikhil Wahi, bror till tidigare Coinbase produktchef Ishan Wahi, kommer att behöva betala skadestånd medan han avtjänar ett fängelsestraff.

— CoinCodeCap Trading (@c3_trading) 13 april 2023

Ishan’s counsel urged the judge to consider his client’s immigration status and grant him a lesser sentence. He said, “I submit that there’s no need for this court to impose additional punishment. He has lost his job. He has lost his reputation. He has suffered an enormous amount of negative publicity both here in the United States and in India.”

Interestingly, prosecutors called for Ishan’s case to be used as an example to dissuade other crypto insiders from exploiting confidential information. Some prosecutors believed a jail term of three years or more would send a strong message to others.

“This was not a one-off mistake — this was over a ten-month period […] Having access to the kind of information that this defendant had access to was like being able to read the newspaper a day in advance,” prosecutors said.

Oavsett vilken typ av tillgång det handlar om har åklagare rätt att väcka åtal för bedrägeri i fall där oärlighet använts för att uppnå ekonomiska fördelar. På så sätt har det amerikanska justitiedepartementet mer flexibilitet än sin civila motsvarighet, US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), att utöva kryptorelaterade brott. SEC är begränsad till att övervaka värdepappersmarknaderna men har utvidgat sin jurisdiktion till kryptoindustrin genom att hävda att de flesta tokens är oregistrerade värdepapper.

The SEC also filed a charge against Ishan and Nikhil Wahi, arguing that their trades involved securities. However, court documents showed that the brothers reached an understanding with the regulator to resolve the claims.

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