First Guilty Plea in Coinbase-Related Insider Trading Charges

The brother of a former Coinbase product manager, Nikhil Wahi, in late July was arrested for trading on confidential information.

AccessTimeIconSep 12, 2022 at 5:48 p.m. UTC
Updated May 11, 2023 at 4:22 p.m. UTC
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Nikhil Wahi pled guilty in U.S. District Court to a wire fraud conspiracy charge, Reuters reported Monday.

Wahi is the brother of former Coinbase (COIN) product manager Ishan Wahi. The Wahi brothers were arrested in late July, charged by the Department of Justice (DOJ) with wire fraud and insider trading – allegedly profiting from information shared by Ishan Wahi regarding least 14 different listings at Coinbase. A friend, Sameer Ramani, was similarly charged but remains at large.

Nikhil Wahi's brother Ishan pleaded not guilty.

Prosecutors have previously declared this matter to be the first-ever crypto-related insider trading case.


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Stephen  Alpher

Stephen Alpher is CoinDesk's managing editor for Markets. He holds BTC above CoinDesk’s disclosure threshold of $1,000.


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