Former cryptocurrency executive Nishad Singh is set to receive his sentence on Wednesday for his involvement in the theft of about $8 billion in customer funds from the now-bankrupt FTX exchange, a scheme orchestrated by his imprisoned former boss, Sam Bankman-Fried.
Singh pleaded guilty to six felony counts of fraud and conspiracy. Last year, he testified as a prosecution witness in the trial that led to Bankman-Fried’s conviction on fraud and other charges. In his plea deal with prosecutors, Singh admitted to playing a role in what they described as one of the largest financial frauds in U.S. history and acting as a “straw donor” for some of Bankman-Fried’s millions in political donations.
Bankman-Fried, 32, currently serves a 25-year prison sentence at the Metropolitan Detention Center in Brooklyn after the collapse of the FTX exchange in November 2022. Singh, 29, who served as FTX’s chief engineer, expects to receive a significantly lighter sentence from U.S. District Judge Lewis Kaplan during a hearing scheduled for 3 p.m. ET (1900 GMT) in federal court in Manhattan. Prosecutors have urged leniency, while Singh’s lawyers have recommended that he avoid prison time altogether.
The U.S. attorney’s office in Manhattan highlighted Singh’s cooperation in their investigation and the prosecution of wrongdoers, as well as his assistance in recovering assets for victims in an Oct. 23 court filing. In a previous sentencing, Kaplan gave Caroline Ellison, Bankman-Fried’s former girlfriend and an executive at FTX’s sister hedge fund, Alameda Research, a two-year prison term. The judge praised her cooperation but emphasized that such assistance cannot serve as a “get out of jail free card” in a case of this magnitude.
Singh’s lawyers argued in an Oct. 16 court filing that he joined the conspiracy relatively late, after Bankman-Fried and Ellison had already decided to use billions of dollars in FTX customer funds to cover losses at Alameda. Bankman-Fried, who rose to a net worth of $26 billion by October 2021 amid the cryptocurrency boom during the COVID pandemic, became known for his substantial donations to philanthropic causes and Democratic politicians. However, his wealth vanished when FTX collapsed amid a surge of customer withdrawals.
During the trial, Singh recounted confronting Bankman-Fried about a significant shortfall in customer funds during an hour-long conversation on the balcony of their $35 million Bahamas penthouse in September 2022. Singh said Bankman-Fried reassured him that he would secure more funding and cut costs. Meanwhile, Bankman-Fried appeals his conviction and sentence, claiming that Kaplan wrongly excluded evidence indicating he believed FTX had sufficient funds to cover customer withdrawals. Gary Wang, another former FTX executive who cooperated with prosecutors, is scheduled for sentencing on Nov. 20.
