After being charged with wire fraud last month, Ishan Wahi, the ex-product manager of NFT platform Coinbase, pleaded not guilty. The allegations surrounding Wahi arose when an insider-trading scandal within the Coinbase ecosystem appeared earlier this year.u00a0
Separately, and on the same day of the original charge (July 21st), the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) also filed insider trading charges against Wahi. According to the commission, Wahi allegedly shared Coinbase listing announcements in advance with his brother Nikhil Wahi and friend Sameer Ramani. They then used such knowledge to trade before announcements went live. By leveraging insight into a reported 14 other Coinbase listing announcements for over 25 different cryptocurrencies, the trio made over $1.1 million in profit.u00a0
The SECu2019s allegations go as far as saying Wahi used an international phone number to communicate insider trading knowledge via phone calls and text messages. According to reports, once the crypto profits were acquired, the Wahi brothers and Ramani allegedly u2018took numerous steps to evade detection from law enforcement by moving them across multiple Ethereum wallets.
Despite his plea of innocence, Wahiu2019s effort to flee the US via a one-way ticket will also not help his case. For now, he and his brother remain in custody, however, the whereabouts of Ramani remain unknown.u00a0
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