The former chief technical officer of collapsed cryptocurrency exchange FTX is close to pleading with federal prosecutors in a possible supportive of the criminal case against founder Sam Bankman-Fried, according to people familiar with the matter.
Nishad Singh, who worked at FTX-affiliated trading platform Alameda and then at FTX itself, would become the third senior official working with the government after former Alameda chief Caroline Ellison and FTX co-founder Gary Wang pleaded guilty to multiple allegations had charges in December.
News of the upcoming settlement with Singh was first reported by Bloomberg.
Ellison and Wang are expected to testify in the upcoming trial of Bankman-Fried, who is facing eight criminal charges and could face the rest of his life in prison if convicted. Bankman-Fried has pleaded not guilty.
FTX, once valued at $32 billion, filed for bankruptcy in November after failing to meet a spate of customer withdrawal requests. Prosecutors said the collapse, which left more than 1 million potential creditors in its wake, was “one of the largest financial scams in American history.”
In a closed hearing in December, hours before Bankman-Fried was extradited to New York from the Bahamas, Ellison told a US federal judge that from 2019 to 2022, Alameda had access to “an unlimited line of credit on FTX.com” and “knew it.” that it was wrong”.
Nishad Singh (left) and Caroline Ellison (right) were both among Bankman-Fried’s inner circle © Financial Times
She has since told prosecutors Bankman-Fried that she prefers to communicate through ephemeral and encrypted platforms to limit the amount of evidence in potential future litigation. The government has used this testimony to argue for stricter bail conditions that could prevent Bankman-Fried from using the internet and certain devices.
Singh, a school friend of Bankman-Fried’s younger brother, once worked as a software engineer for Facebook before joining Alameda in 2017.
Last month, FTX attempted to subpoena Singh along with several members of Bankman-Fried’s inner circle as part of the exchange’s ongoing Delaware bankruptcy proceedings. The court granted the request.
An attorney for Singh and the US Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York declined to comment. A representative for Bankman-Fried declined to comment.
Bankman-Fried, who was released on bail and is staying at his parents’ home in Palo Alto pending the trial, appeared in court in New York on Thursday after prosecutors accused him of witness tampering in an attempt to kill Ryne Miller , FTX US, to contact Attorney General.
The former billionaire’s lawyers – who deny their client attempted to influence a witness – called for looser bail conditions that would allow Bankman-Fried to communicate across a variety of platforms, including direct messages on Twitter, where he sent more than 1 million followers.
But Judge Lewis Kaplan, who is presiding over the case, said Bankman-Fried’s bail would be revoked unless he was satisfied that the defendant was unable to use technology to hide his communications.
A trial against Bankman-Fried is scheduled for October.