Nishad Singh was given time served by a federal judge, allowing him to walk free from prison.
The defunct exchange FTX’s former engineering head, Nishad Singh, was sentenced to time served and three years of supervised release by Judge Lewis Kaplan. With that, the federal judge’s decision in an October 30 hearing in the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York sets Singh out of his prison cell.
He was the fourth person to appear in front of Judge Kaplan to receive sentencing. The previous ones were ex-FTX CEO Sam Bankman Fried, ex-Alameda Research CEO Caroline Ellison, and ex-FTX Digital Markets co-CEO Ryan Salame.
The Judge Was Impressed by Singh’s Cooperation With Prosecutors
Singh’s lawyers reportedly told the judge that most of the actions that led to FTX misappropriating funds fell on Bankman-Fried and Ellison and that Singh did not play a big role in the exchange’s mismanagement. “It was Bankman-Fried with Ellison’s assent to use $1 billion in customer funds,” the lawyers mentioned. “Nishad was in the dark, not in the inner circle.”
Singh also expressed tremendous remorse for his role in the FTX ordeal. He stated: “I am overwhelmed with remorse. I looked up to Sam, but I knew he could be deceptive & self-serving. I alone bear responsibility for my actions & inactions. So many have suffered, the people of the Bahamas.”
Judge Kaplan iterated the magnitude of what happened at FTX, saying, “This may have been one of the biggest crimes in American history.” He added, “But I’m convinced your involvement was much more limited than certainly Bankman-Fried’s and Ellison’s.”
Even US prosecutors acknowledged Singh’s cooperation as being of tremendous help with the case and asked the federal judge to consider it during his sentencing. FTX’s bankruptcy CEO, John Ray, who took over after the firm collapsed to ensure creditors received their investments, also mentioned that Singh could be of more help in the bankruptcy case than he would be in prison.
With this sentencing, a fifth hearing remains for FTX co-founder Gary Wang, who will probably be the last person to appear in front of Judge Kaplan to be sentenced due to FTX’s mismanagement. His hearing is scheduled for November 20.
Bankman-Fried was sentenced to prison for 25 years in March for his role in leading the operation to the ground and causing financial losses to users and investors like no other. Ellison received a leaner sentence of just 2 years, as Kaplan considered her cooperation, which, like Singh’s, helped prosecutors a lot. She will surrender herself on November 7. Salame was sentenced to 7.5 years and went to prison on October 11.
