NEW YORK – Nishad Singh, former director of engineering at FTX and a one-time member of Sam Bankman-Fried’s inner circle, was sentenced to time served by a federal judge on Wednesday, meaning he’s not going to prison like his former colleagues.
He was also ordered to pay $11 billion in restitution.
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Singh, 29, who pleaded guilty to six criminal counts including wire fraud and conspiracy in February, is the fourth FTX executive to be sentenced for his role in the fraud. Bankman-Fried was sentenced to 25 years in prison in March for his role as ringleader. Former FTX Digital Markets CEO Ryan Salame, who did not testify against Bankman-Fried, recently began serving his 7.5 year prison sentence. And Caroline Ellison, former Alameda Research CEO and one-time girlfriend of Bankman-Fried, was sentenced to two years by the same judge, District Judge Lewis Kaplan of the Southern District of New York (SDNY), last month – her sentence heavily discounted by her prompt and extensive cooperation with prosecutors.
Though Kaplan sounded sympathetic to Ellison during her sentencing last month, he contrasted her long-time involvement in and awareness of Bankman-Fried’s fraud with Singh, who was out of the loop until only two months before the exchange collapsed.
“Your case is not the case that Miss Ellison’s was. She was involved from the beginning. She knew for years,” Kaplan said before handing down the sentence.
Kaplan and prosecutors highlighted Singh’s extensive cooperation with prosecutors, during which he incriminated himself repeatedly and informed the government of crimes they did not yet know about.
While Singh did promptly cooperate with the prosecution after FTX collapsed – as well as the FTX bankruptcy estate, as highlighted in an Oct. 29 letter from current FTX CEO John J. Ray III to the court – including testifying against his childhood-friend in Bankman-Fried’s trial last October, he admitted he knew of the $8 billion hole in FTX’s balance sheet by September 2022, two months before the exchange collapsed. Despite knowing about the disastrous financial situation at FTX, Singh also went through with the purchase of a $3.7 million estate in Washington’s Orcas Island in October of 2022, which his lawyer, Andrew Goldstein of Cooley LLP, described as a “deep mistake.”
Wednesday’s sentence was surely welcome news to Singh and his legal team, who requested that the former FTX executive serve no prison time. In a court filing earlier this month, Singh’s lawyers urged the court to consider his “limited” involvement in the scheme, as well as his cooperation with the prosecutions of Bankman-Fried and Salame. The filing described him as an “uncommonly selfless individual” and attached more than 100 letters from friends and family.
More than 20 friends and family members – including Singh’s fiancee Claire Watanabe, his parents and his younger brother – attended the sentencing on Wednesday. Watanabe gasped with relief at the news that Singh would not be going to prison. Both parents shed tears.
Before Kaplan dismissed the court, he spoke to Singh’s parents, emphasizing that he was speaking from his personal perspective and not as a judge.
“I don’t see anything you did wrong,” Kaplan said.
UPDATE (Oct. 30, 20:44 UTC): Adds details from sentencing hearing.
Edited by Marc Hochstein.
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Cheyenne Ligon is a CoinDesk news reporter with a focus on crypto regulation and policy. She has no significant crypto holdings.
