On Wednesday, Ishan Wahi, the former product manager at the crypto exchange giant Coinbase, who was recently accused of being involved in insider trading with two other persons by the United States authorities, pleaded not guilty to the charges.
As per a recent report by Reuters, Wahi pleaded not guilty in a Manhattan federal court after facing wire fraud charges in relation to his alleged involvement in an insider trading scheme.
As TheCoinRise reported, the Department of Justice or DoJ recently accused the former Coinbase employee, his brother Nikhil Wahi, and close associate Sameer Ramani of engaging in insider trading.
Ishan Wahi is accused by the DoJ of using his position at the major crypto exchange to learn in advance which coins Coinbase would list. Wahi told his brother and Ramani the confidential information.
The DoJ added that the accused allegedly exploited 14 distinct listing announcements for 25 cryptocurrencies that were known in advance. So, using the insider trading scam, Nikhil Wahi and Ramani made almost $1.5 million.
The Wahi brothers were taken into custody in Seattle, Washington, but Sameer is still at large. After the accusations were brought, this was the first instance of alleged insider trading in the cryptocurrency sector.
SEC vs. Coinbase
The case took a different angle and sparked a fight between the United States Securities and Exchange Commission and Coinbase. The SEC filed a separate complaint shortly after the charges by DOJ, alleging that nine of the 25 digital tokens used in insider trading were digital assets securities, while Coinbase denied the allegations via an article titled titled “Coinbase does not list securities. End of story.”
The CFTC commissioner Caroline Pham said that the SEC’s complaints are “a striking example of ‘regulation by enforcement’”
Read my statement on #SEC v. Wahi, regulation by enforcement & #CFTC authority #crypto #digitalassets #DAO pic.twitter.com/xbHvyshx8l
— Caroline D. Pham (@CarolineDPham) July 21, 2022
Original Source: https://thecoinrise.com/former-coinbase-employee-pleads-not-guilty-after-insider-trading-accusations/
Author : Anisha Pandey
