Former FTX head of engineering Nishad Singh is reportedly pleading guilty to criminal charges that occurred after Sam Bankman-Fried’s now bankrupt crypto exchange failed to meet customer withdrawals.
Court documents that Singh is facing charges of conspiracy to commit wire fraud on customers, wire fraud on customers, conspiracy to commit commodities fraud, conspiracy to commit securities fraud, conspiracy to commit money laundering and conspiracy to make unlawful political contributions and defraud the Federal Election Commission (FEC).
NBC News reports that the former senior executive, who received $543 million in loans from FTX sister company Alameda Research, pleaded guilty to all six charges in New York on Tuesday. Singh’s lawyers say that he is deeply sorry for his role in the FTX fiasco and has accepted responsibility for his actions.
“He wants to do everything he can to make things right for victims, including by assisting the government to the best of his ability in this case.”
The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) also civil charges against Singh on Tuesday.
In a statement, Gurbir Grewal, director of the SEC’s Division of Enforcement, says Singh created the software code that enabled FTX customer funds to be diverted to Alameda Research.
“We allege that this was fraud, pure and simple: while on the one hand, FTX touted its supposed effective risk mitigation measures to investors, on the other Mr. Singh and his co-defendants were stealing customer funds using software code Mr. Singh helped create.”
The securities regulator says Singh is cooperating with its investigation. The 27-year-old is also said to have separately agreed to settle with the CFTC.
