After pleading guilty to fraud charges in 2023, former FTX engineering director Nishad Singh has asked a judge to grant him “time served and a period of supervised release” for his role in the exchange’s collapse.
In an Oct. 16 filing in the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York, Singh’s lawyers claimed the former engineering director had a “far more limited” role than any other individual named in the FTX indictment, including Sam “SBF” Bankman-Fried, Caroline Ellison, Ryan Salame and Gary Wang.
The sentencing recommendation asked Judge Lewis Kaplan to consider Singh’s cooperation with prosecutors and that he was not involved in any crimes until September 2022 — after Bankman-Fried and Ellison made the “core decisions […] to use billions of dollars in customer funds to shore up Alameda’s finances and pay back its lenders.”
“We respectfully submit that the only appropriate sentence for Nishad, given all of these circumstances, is time served and a period of supervised release,” said the filing.
Source: SDNY
The sentencing filing included dozens of letters from individuals supporting Singh. In his own letter to Judge Kaplan, Singh admitted to “helping Sam falsely claim FTX was more profitable than it was” and harming “countless innocent people” through his actions at the exchange.
“I know you have a lot to consider in determining my sentence,” said Singh. “I hope you see me for who I am. I fully accept the consequences of my actions and the judgment you will pass. I hope, through my future actions, to prove that I am worthy of any chance you may grant me.”
FTX executives behind bars or awaiting sentencing
Singh last appeared in court to testify at Bankman-Fried’s trial in October 2023. The former FTX CEO was found guilty on seven felony charges and sentenced to 25 years in prison. His colleagues Ellison and Wang also pleaded guilty and testified against SBF.
Related: Nishad Singh says there is ’a lot’ he doesn’t remember about FTX in 2022 — SBF trial
Salame, who did not testify at Bankman-Fried’s trial, pleaded guilty and was sentenced to 90 months in prison, reporting to a federal correctional institution in Maryland on Oct. 11. Ellison was sentenced to two years in a Sept. 24 hearing and is scheduled to report to prison by Nov. 7. Wang’s hearing is scheduled for Nov. 20.
Distinguishing from Ellison’s case
At the time of publication, prosecutors had not filed their sentencing recommendations for Singh. However, the former engineering director’s lawyers suggested that Judge Kaplan did not need to send the same message as when he imposed a two-year sentence on Ellison.
“[T]he Court distinguished [Ellison’s] conduct from that of Bankman-Fried and recognized her extensive cooperation, but imposed a term of incarceration in part to show that cooperation cannot be a ‘get out of jail free card’ given the seriousness of her actions,” said the filing. “That message is unnecessary in fashioning an appropriate sentence for Nishad.”
At the time, prosecutors seemed almost flattering of Ellison in their recommendation, saying the former Alameda Research CEO provided “extraordinary cooperation” and was “forthcoming about her own grave misconduct.” Singh, who arguably had a more minor role in FTX’s collapse, may expect a lesser sentence.
Singh is scheduled to return to court on Oct. 30 for his sentencing before Judge Kaplan.
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