Nikhil Wahi, brother of a former Coinbase product manager, has been convicted in a Manhattan federal court in a case of insider trading in crypto assets on the platform.
Last July, the SEC charged former Coinbase product manager Ishan Wahi and his brother Nikhil Wahi with insider trading. After being taken into custody, Nikhil Wahi admitted to the investigation that he used for personal gain the information provided by his brother on the future listing of tokens on the Coinbase Global site. Ishan Vahi pleaded not guilty.
On Tuesday, Nikhil Wahi was sentenced to 10 months in prison for using his family connections to engage in insider trading in crypto assets. The court ordered Nikhil Wahi to pay a fine of $892,000, equivalent to the profit received from these transactions.
Manhattan U.S. Attorney Damian Williams noted that this was the first time in U.S. jurisprudence that “the defendant pleaded guilty to an insider trading case involving the cryptocurrency markets.”
Cooperating with the investigation allowed Nikhil Wahi to avoid the 20-year prison sentence imposed on criminals found guilty of wire fraud. At the end of his term, Nikhil Wahi will be deported from the United States.
In June 2022, Nathaniel Chastain, a former OpenSea employee, was sued for fraud and insider trading in digital assets. However, in August, Chastain filed a motion to dismiss these charges. His lawyers said that since NFTs had not yet been defined as securities or commodities, he technically did not violate any laws.
Source: Bits
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