Former Coinbase manager’s brother jailed for insider trading

The brother of a former Coinbase manager, Nikhil Wahi, was sentenced to 10 months in prison on Jan. 10 for making trades based on confidential Coinbase information he acquired from his brother, Reuters reported.

Nikhil Wahi is the brother of Coinbase’s former product manager Ishan Wahi. Prosecutors claimed that Ishan Wahi tipped his brother and their friend, Sameer Ramani. According to the claims, Nikhil Wahi and Ramani used anonymous Ethereum (ETH) wallets and made over $1 million on trades between July 2021 and May 2022.

The brothers were arrested in July 2022. Twenty-six-year-old Nikhil Wahi pleaded guilty to committing wire fraud in September, while Ishan Wahi pleaded not guilty. Ramani, who was also included in the arrest warrant, was outside U.S. borders at the time and hasn’t made an appearance in the case yet.

Prosecutors recommended Nikhil Wahi be sentenced to prison for at least ten months and up to 16 months. His defense lawyers managed to settle on ten months by claiming that Wahi’s primary motivation for his actions was to repay his parents for funding his college education and that he hadn’t been arrested before.

Journalist at CryptoSlate

Zeynep is an academic who turned to crypto in 2018. Originating in social sciences, she is especially interested in the social impact of blockchain and cryptocurrencies and strongly believes in their transmuting power.