The former head of engineering at Sam Bankman-Fried’s bankrupt cryptocurrency trading firm FTX owned up to fraud charges Tuesday, federal prosecutors said.
Nishad Singh, 27, pleaded guilty in Manhattan Federal Court to wire fraud, conspiracy to commit commodities fraud, conspiracy to commit money laundering, conspiracy to make unlawful political contributions and defraud the Federal Election Commission, and other related charges. He is the third member of Bankman-Fried’s inner circle now cooperating against him.
“Today’s guilty plea underscores once again that the crimes at FTX were vast in scope and consequence. They rocked our financial markets with a multibillion-dollar fraud,” Manhattan U.S. Attorney Damian William said.
“And they corrupted our politics with tens of millions of dollars in illegal straw campaign contributions. These crimes demand swift and certain justice and that is exactly what we are seeking in the Southern District of New York.”
Singh donated $500,000 to the Democratic Party of Oregon last fall, the largest ever donation accepted by the party, according to state records. However, the party originally identified Las Vegas cryptocurrency payment processor Prime Trust as the donor. Prime Trust has not been the subject of any federal fraud charges.
The Democratic Party of Oregon amended its disclosure of the contribution to list Singh as the donor Oct. 31, four days after The Oregonian/OregonLive contacted the party and Prime Trust to ask what interest a Las Vegas cryptocurrency processor had in Oregon elections. The amended report was filed 20 days after the disclosure deadline on Oct. 11.
Oregon election officials last month fined the party $35,000 for failing to disclose the true identity of the donor in a timely manner. The party is fighting the penalty, placing blame for the misreported donation on the “false representations” of the donor.
In the federal case, Singh’s lawyers, Russell Capone and Andrew Goldstein, said he is committed to cooperating with the government.
“Nishad is deeply sorry for his role in this 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 attorneys said.
Singh is free on $250,000 bond until his sentencing.
Bankman-Fried, 30, has been charged in a 12-count indictment alleging he stole billions from investors of his trading platform FTX to divert to his crypto hedge fund Alameda, conspired to defraud banks, pumped millions in masked donations into the political system for personal gain, and other related charges.
He’s pleaded not guilty to eight counts and will to answer to the others, which were revealed last week, at a later date. The alleged mini Madoff is under house arrest at his parents Palo Alto, California, home on a $250 million bond, the largest federal pretrial package in history.
Singh is the secret donor referred to as Co-Conspirator 1 in the superseding indictment against Bankman-Fried that was unsealed last week, according to a source with direct knowledge of the case. He’s described as making concealed contributions to left-leaning political candidates ahead of the 2022 midterms and wiring $107,000 from Bankman-Fried to the New York State Democratic Committee under his name.
“(In) general, you being the center-left face of our spending will mean you giving to a lot of woke s–t for transactional purposes,” a political consultant is quoted as telling Singh in the indictment.
Singh allegedly told the consultant that he was uncomfortable making the secret payments, but knew there was nobody “trusted at FTX (who was) bi/gay.”
Singh is the third of Bankman-Fried’s former executives to plead guilty to criminal charges in the case. In December, Caroline Ellison, the former CEO of Bankman-Fried’s hedge fund Alameda Research and his one-time girlfriend, pleaded guilty to seven charges, and Gary Wang, a co-founder of FTX, pleaded guilty to four charges. Both are cooperating.
Singh faces a possible 75-year prison sentence, authorities said, but he is unlikely to serve that long based on his cooperation.
A spokesman for Bankman-Fried declined to comment.
The Oregonian/OregonLive contributed to this report.
