Indian citizen pleads guilty in first-ever cryptocurrency insider trading case in the US

moneycontrol.com:

A 26-year-old Indian citizen has pleaded guilty in the first-ever cryptocurrency insider trading case in the US, in which he along with his brother and their Indian-American friend made ill-gotten profits totalling over a million dollars.

Nikhil Wahi, a citizen of India and residing in Seattle, on Monday pleaded guilty to wire fraud conspiracy and wire fraud in connection with a scheme to commit insider trading in cryptocurrency assets by using confidential Coinbase information about which crypto assets were scheduled to be listed on Coinbase's exchanges.

Coinbase was one of the largest cryptocurrency exchanges in the world. This is the first time that a defendant has admitted his guilt in an insider trading case in the US involving the cryptocurrency markets.

The charge carries a maximum sentence of 20 years in prison. He is scheduled to be sentenced by Judge Preska on December 13.

In July this year, Nikhil and his elder brother Ishan, 32 along with their Indian-American friend Sameer Ramani, 33, who resided in Houston, was charged in the first ever cryptocurrency insider trading scheme.

Prosecutors said the three were charged in the first-ever cryptocurrency insider trading tipping scheme, in which the defendants made illegal trades in at least 25 different crypto assets and realised ill-gotten gains totalling approximately USD 1.5 million.

United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York Damian Williams said that Nikhil, who was arrested in July, pleaded guilty before the US District Judge Loretta A. Preska.

Less than two months after he was charged, Nikhil Wahi admitted in court today that he traded in crypto assets based on Coinbase's confidential business information to which he was not entitled. For the first