The US Department of Justice (DoJ) has charged a former Coinbase employee and two of his collaborators with insider trading through which they realized ill-gotten gains totaling approximately $1.5 million.
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The regulator said in a press release that Ishan Wahi, a former product manager at Coinbase, made a scheme to commit insider trading in cryptocurrency assets by using confidential information about which crypto was scheduled to be listed on the platform.
In October 2020, Wahi joined Coinbase's listing team. DOJ says in that role he was involved in the "highly confidential process of listing crypto assets." Starting at least in August 2021 and until May 2022, he also was a member of a private Coinbase messaging channel, where Coinbase's employees had direct involvement in the asset listing process.
DOJ added that Wahi at least 14 times shared Coinbase's confidential information about upcoming listings with his brother, Nikhil Wahi, or his friend and associate, Sameer Ramani. The both could place profitable buy orders in advance of Coinbase's listing announcement. All the defendants are facing a maximum sentence of 20 years.
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