Nishad Singh becomes latest FTX exec to plead guilty

Former FTX executive Nishad Singh has agreed to plead guilty to six U.S. criminal charges brought against him in the case against the collapsed exchange, Reuters reported Feb. 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 U.S. by violating campaign finance laws.

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

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

“Be extra careful not to liquidate.”

According to the SEC, the code change allegedly conducted by Singh gave Alameda a “virtually unlimited line of credit” at the collapsed exchange and the billions of dollars it borrowed through that was mostly customer funds.

Singhwas also part of Sam Bankman-Friend straw donor scheme that conducted illegal campaign donations using corporate funds in a bid to influence policy makers.

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

SBF is facing 12 different counts of wire fraud, money laundering and illegal campaign donations and is set to face trial later this year. He continues to plead not guilty to all charges.

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

Ellison plead guilty to seven charges, while Wang plead guilty to four.

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

Additionally, FTX lawyer Daniel Friedberg is also cooperating with prosecutors and is not facing any criminal charges so far, the report said.

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