FTX Senior Executive Charged with Fraud by US Regulators
US regulators have brought charges against Nishad Singh, a senior executive at FTX, for allegedly committing fraud. Singh is accused of making false and misleading statements to investors in connection with the launch of the FTX.US cryptocurrency exchange.
The Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) filed a civil enforcement action against Singh in a federal court in New York. According to the CFTC, Singh lied to potential investors about the nature and extent of FTX’s involvement in the exchange, as well as its compliance with anti-money laundering (AML) and know-your-customer (KYC) regulations.
Singh allegedly claimed that FTX.US was an independent exchange that operated separately from FTX, even though FTX provided significant financial and technical support for the project. He also allegedly made false statements about the exchange’s AML and KYC policies, which he claimed were more robust than they actually were.
Today we charged Nishad Singh, the former Co-Lead Engineer of FTX Trading Ltd., for his role in a multiyear scheme to defraud equity investors in FTX, the crypto trading platform started by Singh, Samuel Bankman-Fried, and Gary Wang.
— U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (@SECGov) February 28, 2023
FTX, which is one of the world’s largest cryptocurrency exchanges, has not been accused of any wrongdoing in connection with the alleged fraud. The company said in a statement that it is cooperating with the CFTC’s investigation and that Singh has been placed on administrative leave.
