Ishan Wahi, a former employee of Coinbase, was sentenced to two years in prison today on charges of cryptocurrency insider trading in a lawsuit filed by the US Department of Justice (DOJ), Reuters reported.
During a May 9 hearing in the Southern District Court of New York, Judge Loretta Preska sentenced Wahi to two years in prison for using confidential information she obtained during her tenure at Coinbase to profit from new token listings.
Ishan Wahi, a former product manager at Coinbase, the largest US cryptocurrency exchange, was arrested in July 2022.
Ishan Wahi has been accused of electronic fraud and insider trading for providing inside information to his brother and another man about upcoming altcoin listings on the Coinbase exchange.
U.S. prosecutors claimed that Ishan Wahi made more than $1 million in trading with Wahi's information that he gave insider information and information regarding crypto listings between June 2021 and April 2022.
Ishan Wahi's brother Nikhil Wahi was also accused of electronic fraud and pleaded guilty to fraud last September. At the hearing in January, he was sentenced to 10 months in prison.
Ishan Wahi also admitted to the charges against him after his brother admitted to the accusations.
However, Wahi's lawyers stated that Ishan Wahi's sentence was too high compared to his brother's 10-month sentence.
*Not investment advice.
