A former product manager at U.S.-based crypto exchange Coinbase is asking for less prison time ahead of his May 10 sentencing date.
Ishan Wahi was indicted along with his brother, Nikhil Wahi, and a friend, Sameer Ramani, by federal prosecutors for what the Department of Justice labeled the first cryptocurrency insider trading tipping scheme.
Nikhil Wahi pleaded guilty to the charges against him last year and was sentenced to 10 months in prison earlier this year.
After initially pleading not guilty, Ishan Wahi in February pleaded guilty to two counts of conspiracy to commit wire fraud. As part of a plea deal, prosecutors previously said he should be imprisoned 36 to 47 months, according to sentencing guidelines, Reuters reported.
Instead, Wahi now is asking for a sentence similar to his brother’s, according to a memorandum filed Monday.
In July, Wahi was indicted and accused of passing along to his brother and friend confidential information about which crypto assets were set to be listed on Coinbase. Wahi was accused of tipping them off on at least 14 occasions over roughly a year, with Nikhil Wahi and Ramani making trades that yielded about $1.5 million in realized and unrealized profits, according to the DOJ. Nikhil Wahi and Ramani tried to obfuscate the trades by using various anonymous crypto wallets.
After Coinbase investigated the trades, they called in Wahi for a meeting on May 16, 2022. The day before, Wahi had purchased a one-way flight to India set to leave hours before that meeting. Prior to boarding, Wahi was stopped by law enforcement.
In the latest memorandum, Wahi’s lawyers claim that his “acceptance of responsibility has been swift, sincere, and complete.” The document points to letters submitted on his behalf by his mother and girlfriend as evidence that his criminal conduct “has been the regret of his lifetime.”
Wahi has depleted his savings to fund his defense, and he apparently owes his parents and grandparents hundreds of thousands of dollars. “Ishan’s reputation has been destroyed. He will forever be branded a felon, and may not be able to work in the industry in which he spent years painstakingly building his career,” his lawyers wrote in the document.
A lawyer for Wahi didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment from Coins2Day.
Wahi’s request for a shorter sentence comes as a similar insider trading case for NFTs against a former OpenSea product manager is underway in New York. While the case has also been painted as “insider trading,” the ex-OpenSea employee, Nate Chastain, stands accused of wire fraud and money laundering, and it’s unlikely the case will delve into whether NFTs actually qualify as securities.
