WASHINGTON: The US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) said on Wednesday that Indian brothers Ishan and Nikhil Wahi, who work for cryptocurrency exchange Coinbase, have agreed to settle allegations that they engaged in insider trading through a scheme.
The Wahi brothers engaged in insider trading by planning their transactions to take place before at least nine crypto asset securities became publicly tradeable on the Coinbase platform.
The US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) said on May 31 that Indian brothers Ishan and Nikhil Wahi, who work for cryptocurrency exchange Coinbase, have agreed to settle allegations that they engaged in insider trading through a scheme.
The Wahi brothers engaged in insider trading by planning their transactions to take place before at least nine crypto asset securities became publicly tradeable on the Coinbase platform. Nikhil and Ramani allegedly bought at least 25 crypto assets, at least nine of which were securities, before to those disclosures, which often increased the prices of the assets, and typically sold them for a profit shortly after the announcements.
As part of the settlement, the Wahi brothers consented not to refute the SEC's accusations. "The conduct in this case may be novel, but the technologies at issue are not. Insider trading, plain and simple, is what we say Ishan and Nikhil Wahi did when they traded shares based on significant nonpublic knowledge, according to Gurbir S. Grewal, director of the SEC's Division of Enforcement.
Ishan and Nikhil agreed, subject to court approval, to the entry of final judgements prohibiting them forever from breaking Section 10(b) of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 and Rule 10b-5 thereunder. Ishan and Nikhil admitted to conspiring to commit wire fraud in the legal proceeding.
Ishan received a 24-month prison term and was required to lose 10.97 ether and 9,440 Tether, while Nikhil received a 10-month sentence and was required to forfeit $892,500.
