Nishad Singh becomes latest FTX exec to plead guilty

Former FTX executive Nishad Singh has agreed to plead guilty to six US criminal charges brought against him in the collapsed exchange case, Reuters reported on February 28.

The charges are: one count of wire fraud, three counts of conspiracy to commit fraud, one count of conspiracy to commit money laundering, and one count of conspiracy to defraud the US by violating campaign finance laws.

Singh was the exchange’s former technical director and changed parts of the code that allowed Alameda Research to continue its unaudited borrowing without being liquidated.

Reuters said it saw a comment Singh wrote in the platform’s code which read:

“Be extra careful not to liquidate.”

According to the SEC, the code change allegedly performed by Singh gave Alameda a “virtually unlimited line of credit” on the collapsed exchange, and the billions of dollars it borrowed as a result were mostly customer funds.

Singh was also part of the Sam Bankman-Friend straw donor program, which ran illegal campaign donations using corporate funds to influence policymakers.

Based on Open Secrets records, Singh donated to one of the PACs named in the latest indictment against SBF.

SBF faces 12 separate counts of wire fraud, money laundering and illegal campaign contributions and is due to go to trial later this year. He continues to plead not guilty to all charges.

Meanwhile, several ex-FTX executives have agreed to plead guilty and cooperate with law enforcement – including Gary Wang and Caroline Ellison, who were part of SBF’s inner circle.

Ellison pleaded guilty to seven counts, while Wang pleaded guilty to four.

According to Reuters, several other former executives are considering working with prosecutors and have hired attorneys to discuss the matter.

In addition, FTX attorney Daniel Friedberg is also cooperating with prosecutors and has not yet faced any criminal charges, the report said.