Sam Bankman-Fried’s 2 friends plead guilty, no news on Nishad Singh

San Francisco, Dec 22

Two close friends of former FTX CEO Sam Bankman-Fried have pleaded guilty to federal charges and are cooperating with the prosecutors in the US, the media reported. However, there is no news on Indian-origin Nishad Singh, another key FTX executive.

Caroline Ellison and Zixiao "Gary" Wang, two executives in the bankrupt crypto exchange FTC, have pleaded guilty, according to Damian Williams, the US Attorney for the Southern District of New York.

The guilty pleas were related to their roles as insiders at FTX and its sister company Alameda Research, according to The Verge.

Wang was a co-founder of the FTX cryptocurrency exchange and owned 10 percent of Alameda Research.

Ellison served as CEO of Bankman-Fried's trading company Alameda Research.

Ellison pleaded guilty to seven counts and faces up to 110 years in prison. Wang pleaded guilty to four counts and faces up to 50 years in prison.

The US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) have filed civil suits against FTX and its ket executives.

After the arrest of Bankman-Fried from the Bahamas who has agreed to be extradited to the US, all eyes were on his key associates, including Singh.

Singh was in the inner circle of FTX's 30-year-old founder Bankman-Fried.

As FTX's director of engineering, he lived in a penthouse in the Bahamas, along with Ellison and Wang.

Singh and the close friends of SBF had a group on encrypted messaging platform Signal, called "Wirefraud", which was used to discuss company operations.

According to earlier reports, Wang, Singh and SBF controlled the code, the exchange's matching engine, and funds.

Ellison, Wang and Singh are key players in this FTX catastrophe, reports mentioned.

--IANS