SEC Settles with Coinbase Trading Bros.
Posted on 05/30/2023
The Securities and Exchange Commission says it reached an agreement with Coinbase product manager Ishan Wahi and his brother, Nikhil Wahi. The brothers agreed to settle charges they engaged in insider trading by making moves ahead of multiple announcements regarding at least nine crypto asset securities that would be made available for trading on Coinbase. Ishan and Nikhil Wahi will pay back all gains made and will be “permanently enjoined from violating Section 10(b) of the Securities Exchange Act and Rule 10b-5.”
The trades were committed between June 2021 to April 2022. As part of the settlement, the Wahi’s are not able to publicly dispute the SEC’s allegations.
Gurbir S. Grewal, Director of the SEC’s Division of Enforcement, said in a statement: “While the technologies at issue in this case may be new, the conduct is not. We allege that Ishan and Nikhil Wahi, respectively, tipped and traded securities based on material nonpublic information, and that’s insider trading, pure and simple. The federal securities laws do not exempt crypto asset securities from the prohibition against insider trading, nor does the SEC. I am grateful to the SEC staff for successfully working to resolve this matter.”
The SEC’s investigation was conducted by Michael Brennan, Jennie B. Krasner, and Gregory Padgett, with assistance from Patrick McCluskey, Sejal Bhakta, and Donald Battle. The case was supervised by Paul Kim, Joseph Sansone, and Carolyn M. Welshhans. The litigation is led by Daniel Maher and Peter Lallas and supervised by Olivia Choe.
