Ex-Coinbase employee accused of insider trading pleaded not guilty

The lawyer of the former exchange product manager Ishan Wahi claims that the assets were not securities

04.08.2022 - 15:55

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What’s new? Ishan Wahi, the former product manager of Coinbase crypto exchange, and his brother Nikhil Wahi, accused of insider trading, have pleaded not guilty. According to Reuters, lawyer David Miller disputed the charges, pointing out that insider trading cases should involve securities or commodities, which is not the case with his clients. The lawyer also suggested that the information used by the defendants was not confidential, saying Coinbase tested new tokens before placing them on its platform.

Reuters’ material

How did events develop? On July 21, a New York court charged Ishan Wahi, his brother Nikhil Wahi, and their mutual friend Sameer Ramani with insider trading. According to the case file, using information that Ishan had access to as an employee of the exchange, they earned $1,5 million on the listings of 25 cryptocurrencies, buying them on the eve of listing on the platform and then reselling them at increased prices. This became the first insider trading cryptocurrency case in the history of the United States.

The judge ordered both brothers released on $1 million bail. The next hearing in the case is set for March 22, 2023.

Also, the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) launched an investigation into Coinbase. The regulator is investigating whether the platform offered digital assets that were unregistered securities to US citizens. The SEC’s scrutiny of Coinbase increased after the platform expanded the number of tokens available for trading.

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