Former FTX Director to reportedly plead guilty to fraud charges

cointelegraph.com:

Nishad Singh, former director of engineering at FTX, is expected to plead guilty to fraud charges brought by U.S. prosecutors who are investigating the now bankrupt FTX cryptocurrency exchange, Reuters reported on Feb 28.

During the hearing in a Manhattan federal court, Singh's lawyer announced that his client had agreed to plead guilty to one count of wire fraud, one count of conspiracy to commit wire fraud on FTX customers, and one count of conspiracy to commit commodities fraud. 

Nishad Singh, the former director of engineering at now-bankrupt crypto exchange FTX, has agreed to plead guilty to U.S. criminal charges, his lawyer said in court, as U.S. prosecutors ramp up their probe into members of Sam Bankman-Fried's inner circle https://t.co/KinlD4h4Zj pic.twitter.com/8UFekP2XF5

According to CNBC, Singh was a close friend of Bankman-Fried's younger brother in high school and became FTX's director of engineering in 2019. In 2020, Singh allegedly altered FTX's software to allow Alameda, a firm where he had previously worked as chief executive, to avoid automatic asset sales when it was losing too much borrowed money. This exemption allowed Alameda to continue borrowing from FTX regardless of how much collateral secured its loans, according to Reuters. The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission has alleged that this code change gave Alameda a "virtually unlimited line of credit" at FTX, and that the billions of dollars FTX lent Alameda over the next two years came from FTX customers.

Singh, who was absent from public view for an extended period compared to other FTX executives, emerged in early January to participate in a proffer session at the Southern District of New York's United States Attorney's office. During a