A now-former Coinbase manager, his brother, and a friend were today charged with wire fraud conspiracy and wire fraud in connection with the first-ever cryptocurrency insider trading scheme in the US.
Ishan Wahi, a 32-year-old ex-product manager at Coinbase Global who lives in Seattle, Washington, and his 26-year-old brother Nikhil Wahi, also from Seattle, were arrested Thursday morning.
A third co-conspirator, 33-year-old Sameer Ramani, of Houston, Texas, remains at large.
The US Department of Justice and FBI allege the three men pulled off a $1.5 million insider trading scheme by using confidential Coinbase information about which crypto-assets were scheduled to be listed on Coinbase's exchanges.
It's claimed Ishan Wahi tipped off his brother Nikhil and/or Ramani, who then bought the digital tokens on the assumption that their value would rise once listed.
In addition to the criminal charges, the US Securities and Exchange Commission filed [PDF] a separate insider trading complaint against the three men.
As a Coinbase product manager assigned to the financial giant's asset listing team, Ishan Wahi was privy to advanced knowledge of which cryptocurrencies Coinbase planned to list, according to court records.
Additionally, we're told Wahi was a member of a private Coinbase messaging channel reserved for a select few employees with direct involvement in the asset listing process. This was used to discuss, among other things, "exact announcement/launch dates + timelines" that weren't shared with the rest of the Coinbase staff.
Wahi knew this information was highly confidential, according to the indictment, but he allegedly passed it a ..
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