SEC and CFTC Charge FTX’s Nishad Singh

Tom Carreras

Mar. 1, 2023

Singh pleaded guilty to six criminal charges yesterday.

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Shutterstock image by Stanslavs

Key Takeaways

Former FTX head of engineering Nishad Singh pleaded guilty to six criminal charges yesterday.
The CFTC and SEC have filed civil lawsuits against him.
The regulatory bodies are seeking civil monetary penalties, and to ban Singh from ever trading commodities and securities again.

FTX’s chief engineer, Nishad Singh, was hit with lawsuits from both the SEC and the CFTC shortly after pleading guilty to six criminal charges yesterday.

Aiding and Abetting Fraud

Another one of Sam Bankman-Fried’s lieutenants is facing civil lawsuits.

Yesterday both the Securities and Exchange Commission and the Commodity Futures Trading Commission filed complaints against former FTX head of engineering Nishad Singh.

The CFTC accused Singh of fraud and of aiding and abetting the fraud committed by FTX, Alameda Research, and Sam Bankman-Fried. Among other things, the regulatory body is seeking civil monetary penalties, restitution of funds, and to ban Singh from ever being involved in the transaction of commodity interests or “digital asset commodities” again.

“Today’s filing reflects the CFTC’s commitment to protecting the U.S. digital commodity markets,” stated CFTC chief counsel Gretchen Lowe. “Today’s filing also includes a concession of liability by an individual who, as charged, engaged in and aided significant violations of the Commodity Exchange Act and CFTC regulations.”

The SEC for its part accused Singh of violating the Securities Act and the Exchange Act by enabling Bankman-Fried to move FTX funds in an unlawful manner. The agency is also seeking civil monetary penalties and to forbid Singh from trading securities—including “crypto asset securities”.

“We allege that this was fraud, pure and simple,” stated SEC director of enforcement Gurbir Grewal. “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.”

Singh pleaded guilty yesterday to 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 United States by violating campaign finance laws.

Disclaimer: At the time of writing, the author of this piece owned BTC, ETH, and several other crypto assets.

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