Nishad Singh, the former head of engineering at FTX, pleaded guilty to criminal charges in New York on Tuesday and agreed to the deal as the newest member of Sam Bankman-Fried’s former leadership team.
The six charges against Singh include conspiracy to commit securities fraud, conspiracy to launder money, and conspiracy to commit campaign finance violations. Bankman-Fried’s FTX, a cryptocurrency exchange founded by him, went bankrupt in November after failing to meet customer withdrawal requests.
Prior to Singh’s guilty plea, FTX co-founder Gary Wang and former Alameda Research co-CEO Caroline Ellison pleaded guilty to charges in federal court for the Southern District of New York in December.
Alameda was both a hedge fund and a trading company controlled by Bankman-Fried. Prosecutors allege FTX customer deposits were routed to sister company Alameda, which faced billions of dollars in investment losses.
In December, Bankman-Fried was indicted on eight criminal accounts, including securities fraud and money laundering. He was hit with four additional charges against him last week, including one related to merchandise fraud and illegal political contributions. He was released on $250 million bail while awaiting trial.
A representative for Bankman-Fried declined to comment.
Two of the charges against Singh relate to wire fraud, and the other is conspiracy to defraud merchandise.
This is a developing story. Please check the latest information.
— CNBC’s David Sucherman contributed to this report.