Nishad Singh

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Nishad Singh
Born: 1994
United States
Charges:
Sentence: Time served, 3 years supervised release, no prison
Facility: N/A
Status: Sentenced (October 2024)


Nishad Singh is an American software engineer who served as Director of Engineering at FTX, the cryptocurrency exchange founded by Sam Bankman-Fried. Singh was among the senior executives who pleaded guilty to federal fraud charges following FTX's collapse in November 2022. In October 2024, Singh was sentenced to time served with no prison time, reflecting his extensive cooperation with federal prosecutors in the case against Bankman-Fried.

Early Life and Education

Nishad Singh was born in 1994 in the United States. He grew up in the San Francisco Bay Area and attended Crystal Springs Uplands School in Hillsborough, California, an elite private preparatory school where he excelled academically and demonstrated exceptional talent in competitive programming. During high school, Singh participated in programming competitions and was recognized as one of the top young computer science talents in the region.

Singh attended the University of California, Berkeley, where he studied computer science and graduated with distinction. At Berkeley, he developed expertise in high-performance systems architecture, distributed computing, and algorithmic trading infrastructure. His technical abilities and mathematical aptitude made him a natural fit for quantitative trading firms and cryptocurrency ventures. Singh's college years overlapped with the early stages of the cryptocurrency boom, and he developed a particular interest in the technical challenges of building exchange platforms capable of handling high-frequency trading at scale.

Connection to Sam Bankman-Fried

Singh's brother Ramnik Singh worked with Sam Bankman-Fried at Jane Street Capital, a prestigious quantitative trading firm known for recruiting top mathematical and programming talent from elite universities. Through his brother's professional connection, Nishad Singh met Bankman-Fried in the mid-2010s and was introduced to the emerging world of cryptocurrency trading.

Bankman-Fried recognized Singh's technical abilities and recruited him to join the small team building Alameda Research's trading infrastructure. Singh became part of the tight-knit group of Berkeley graduates and quantitative traders who formed the core of Bankman-Fried's cryptocurrency empire. This personal connection to Bankman-Fried through his brother would prove significant—Singh's loyalty to Bankman-Fried and their social circle contributed to his reluctance to report the fraud even as it became apparent to him. At trial, Singh testified that he viewed Bankman-Fried as both a mentor and friend, which made confronting the criminal conduct particularly difficult.

Career at FTX and Alameda

Joining Alameda Research

Singh joined Alameda Research, Bankman-Fried's cryptocurrency trading firm, in 2017 during its early stages of operation. At the time, Alameda was a small operation focused on arbitrage opportunities in cryptocurrency markets, taking advantage of price discrepancies between different exchanges. Singh quickly became a key technical contributor, developing the trading systems and infrastructure that allowed Alameda to execute high-frequency trades across multiple platforms simultaneously.

Singh's work at Alameda included building automated trading bots, developing risk management systems, and creating the technical architecture that would later be adapted for FTX's exchange platform. His contributions were essential to Alameda's early profitability, and he was compensated with equity in the firm. During this period, Singh worked closely with Bankman-Fried and other early Alameda employees, including Caroline Ellison and Gary Wang, in what was described as an intense startup environment where the small team lived and worked together.

Director of Engineering at FTX

When FTX was founded in 2019, Singh became Director of Engineering, one of the most senior technical roles at the company and a position that gave him access to the exchange's core systems and databases. His responsibilities included:

  • Building and maintaining FTX's trading platform and matching engine
  • Developing key exchange features including derivatives trading, margin systems, and the FTT token infrastructure
  • Managing engineering teams that grew from a handful of developers to over 100 engineers
  • Overseeing the technical integration between FTX and Alameda Research
  • Implementing systems that, as later revealed, enabled Alameda to maintain special privileges on the platform, including unlimited borrowing capacity

Singh held a significant ownership stake in FTX, estimated at several percent of the company's equity. When FTX was valued at $32 billion in early 2022, Singh's stake was worth hundreds of millions of dollars on paper, making him one of the wealthiest individuals under 30. This paper wealth was frequently cited in media coverage of FTX's rapid rise, with Singh appearing on lists of young cryptocurrency billionaires and tech prodigies.

Critically, Singh had the technical access and expertise to understand how FTX's systems actually operated. His role gave him visibility into the database structures that showed customer deposits, the code that allowed Alameda to maintain a negative balance, and the technical mechanisms by which billions in customer funds were transferred to Alameda. This technical knowledge would later become central to both his criminal culpability and the value of his cooperation with prosecutors.

Lifestyle

Singh lived in a luxury penthouse in the Bahamas alongside other FTX executives after the company relocated its headquarters to Nassau in 2021. Unlike Bankman-Fried, who cultivated a public image of frugality despite his own extravagant spending, Singh embraced a more openly lavish lifestyle befitting his paper net worth:

  • Purchased a $3.7 million home in the Bahamas in 2022, a waterfront property in one of Nassau's most exclusive neighborhoods
  • Made significant charitable donations, including millions to effective altruism causes and pandemic prevention initiatives
  • Contributed tens of millions to political campaigns, becoming one of the top individual political donors in the 2022 cycle
  • Enjoyed access to private jets, luxury vehicles, and the other perks of FTX's executive lifestyle

At trial, prosecutors presented evidence that virtually all of Singh's spending—including his real estate purchases and political donations—was funded directly or indirectly by misappropriated customer funds. Singh himself acknowledged that his compensation and bonuses from FTX, which enabled his lifestyle, were artificially inflated by the fraudulent profits Alameda generated using stolen customer deposits.

Role in the Fraud

Knowledge of Misappropriation

As Director of Engineering, Singh had deep insight into FTX's technical systems and database architecture. According to his guilty plea and trial testimony, Singh became aware of the fraud in multiple stages, with his knowledge crystallizing over time. He later admitted under oath that he was aware:

  • Alameda Research was using FTX customer deposits as early as 2021, enabled by code that allowed Alameda to maintain a negative balance of up to $65 billion
  • Billions of dollars in customer funds were unaccounted for by mid-2022, when he began reviewing the company's financial position in detail
  • FTX's public statements about segregation of customer funds were false and misleading, as customer assets were being freely transferred to Alameda
  • The "[email protected]" account, which appeared to represent Alameda's liabilities to FTX, was manipulated to conceal the true magnitude of customer fund misappropriation

Singh testified that in summer 2022, he confronted Bankman-Fried about the discrepancies he had discovered in FTX's books. Bankman-Fried allegedly told Singh that Alameda had lost customer funds through bad trades and loans that had not been repaid, but assured him the situation could be resolved through profitable trading. Singh admitted he chose to believe these assurances rather than report the fraud to regulators or law enforcement, a decision he later characterized as the biggest mistake of his life.

Political Donations

Singh made substantial political contributions using funds derived from FTX, becoming a major player in the 2022 election cycle:

  • Donated approximately $9.3 million to Democratic candidates, committees, and causes during the 2020-2022 election cycles
  • Contributed to political action committees focused on pandemic preparedness and biosecurity, causes aligned with effective altruism priorities
  • Became one of the top 30 individual political donors in the 2022 election cycle, despite being only 28 years old
  • Made donations to House and Senate candidates, including significant contributions to competitive races

According to trial testimony and court filings, Singh made these donations at Bankman-Fried's direction as part of a coordinated strategy to build political influence for FTX. Bankman-Fried allegedly instructed Singh on which candidates and causes to support, with Singh serving as one of several "straw donors" who made contributions on behalf of the company using funds that were sourced from FTX customer deposits.

These donations were later revealed to have been funded at least in part by misappropriated customer funds, adding campaign finance violations to Singh's legal exposure. The scheme violated federal campaign finance laws that prohibit corporate contributions and require disclosure of the true source of political donations. Many of the politicians who received Singh's donations later returned them or donated them to charity after FTX's collapse.

Growing Concerns

Singh testified that he became increasingly concerned about the fraud as it escalated throughout 2022. According to his court testimony, Singh's awareness of the full scope of the fraud developed gradually, reaching a crisis point in the months before FTX's collapse.

In June 2022, Singh learned that the hole in customer funds had grown to approximately $8 billion, far larger than he had previously understood. He confronted Bankman-Fried about the growing deficit in customer accounts, asking pointed questions about how such massive losses could have occurred and whether they could be recovered. Bankman-Fried allegedly downplayed the severity of the situation and continued to assure Singh that Alameda's trading operations would generate sufficient profits to repay the customer funds.

Singh testified that he experienced severe emotional distress during this period, describing sleepless nights and anxiety about his complicity in the fraud. However, despite his growing concerns, he did not report the fraud to authorities, resign from FTX, or take decisive action to stop the misappropriation. At sentencing, prosecutors and the court noted this failure to act as the primary basis for Singh's criminal liability—while he was not an architect of the fraud like Bankman-Fried, he had knowledge of it and chose to remain silent.

Collapse of FTX

In November 2022, FTX collapsed in spectacular fashion over the course of a single week that shocked the cryptocurrency industry and financial markets:

  • On November 2, 2022, CoinDesk published an investigative report revealing that Alameda Research's balance sheet was heavily concentrated in FTT tokens, FTX's proprietary exchange token, suggesting dangerous interconnection between the supposedly separate entities
  • Binance CEO Changpeng Zhao announced his exchange would liquidate its FTT holdings, triggering a broader loss of confidence
  • Customers rushed to withdraw funds from FTX, creating a classic bank run that the exchange could not satisfy
  • On November 8, FTX halted customer withdrawals, publicly revealing for the first time that billions in customer deposits were missing
  • The company filed for bankruptcy on November 11, 2022, with Bankman-Fried resigning as CEO

Singh's paper wealth of hundreds of millions of dollars was wiped out overnight as FTX's equity became worthless. More significantly for Singh, the collapse triggered immediate federal investigations by the FBI, the Securities and Exchange Commission, the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, and the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Southern District of New York. Within weeks, the investigations had identified Singh as a key figure with detailed knowledge of FTX's operations and potential criminal conduct.

Criminal Charges and Cooperation

Guilty Plea

On February 28, 2023, Singh pleaded guilty to six federal charges in a proceeding before U.S. District Judge Lewis Kaplan:

He was the third FTX insider to plead guilty and cooperate, following Caroline Ellison and Gary Wang. Singh's guilty plea came relatively quickly after FTX's collapse—within approximately three months of the bankruptcy filing—suggesting that prosecutors moved swiftly to secure cooperation from key witnesses against Bankman-Fried.

In his guilty plea, Singh admitted that he had knowingly participated in the fraudulent scheme by failing to disclose the misappropriation of customer funds despite his knowledge of it, by making political donations funded by stolen customer money, and by helping to maintain the technical systems that enabled the fraud. He faced a maximum sentence of 75 years in prison across all counts, though prosecutors immediately indicated they would recommend leniency based on his cooperation.

Cooperation

Singh immediately began cooperating with federal prosecutors, and his cooperation was described by the government as "substantial" and "extraordinary." His cooperation included:

  • Providing detailed information about FTX's internal operations, including technical documentation of how the systems allowed Alameda to access customer funds
  • Explaining how the fraud was structured and concealed, including the database manipulations and accounting tricks used to hide the misappropriation
  • Testifying at Bankman-Fried's criminal trial in October-November 2023
  • Providing documentation and communications, including code repositories, internal messages, and financial records
  • Participating in numerous proffer sessions with federal prosecutors to prepare his testimony and explain technical aspects of the fraud
  • Agreeing to testify at future proceedings if needed, including potential trials of other FTX-related defendants
  • Cooperating with civil enforcement actions by the SEC and CFTC

According to court filings, Singh met with prosecutors on numerous occasions over many months, helping them understand the technical infrastructure of FTX and Alameda. His cooperation was particularly valuable because of his technical expertise—he could explain to investigators and eventually juries exactly how the fraud worked at a code and database level, making the complex scheme comprehensible to non-technical audiences.

Trial Testimony

At Bankman-Fried's trial in October-November 2023, Singh provided significant testimony over multiple days as a key government witness. His testimony covered several critical areas:

  • He described his June 2022 confrontation with Bankman-Fried about the missing funds, recounting that Bankman-Fried admitted Alameda had lost billions in customer money but claimed it could be recovered
  • He explained the political donation scheme in detail, testifying that Bankman-Fried directed him to make specific donations and that the funds came from FTX customer deposits
  • He testified about Bankman-Fried's directives and decision-making authority, making clear that Bankman-Fried was the ultimate decision-maker for both FTX and Alameda
  • He walked the jury through technical details of how FTX's code allowed Alameda to maintain an unlimited negative balance, using exhibits and simplified explanations
  • He expressed deep remorse for his own role in the fraud, telling the jury he felt "ashamed" and "devastated" by his actions

Singh was notably emotional on the stand, at times breaking down when describing the harm caused to FTX customers who lost their life savings. His visible remorse stood in stark contrast to Bankman-Fried's demeanor during the trial and was likely a factor in the jury's quick guilty verdict. Defense attorneys attempted to portray Singh as shifting blame to Bankman-Fried to save himself, but prosecutors argued Singh's technical knowledge and documentary evidence corroborated his account.

Sentencing

No Prison Time

On October 30, 2024, U.S. District Judge Lewis Kaplan sentenced Singh to:

  • Time served (no additional prison time beyond the brief period he spent in custody immediately after his arrest)
  • Three years of supervised release
  • Forfeiture of assets derived from the fraud

The sentence reflected his extensive cooperation and his role as a subordinate rather than a leader of the fraud. Judge Kaplan noted during the sentencing hearing that while Singh's crimes were serious and involved billions of dollars in losses to victims, his cooperation had been "remarkable" and his remorse appeared genuine. The judge distinguished Singh's case from that of Bankman-Fried, emphasizing that Singh had not been the mastermind of the scheme and had ultimately provided critical assistance to prosecutors.

The time-served sentence meant Singh avoided any additional incarceration, making him the second FTX cooperator after Gary Wang to receive no prison time. This outcome was consistent with prosecutors' recommendation and reflected the U.S. Attorney's Office's practice of rewarding substantial cooperation with significant sentencing departures, even in cases involving massive financial fraud.

Factors in Leniency

Judge Kaplan cited several factors in the lenient sentence during the October 30, 2024 sentencing hearing:

  • Singh's early and comprehensive cooperation with federal investigators, which began immediately after his guilty plea and continued through trial and beyond
  • His genuine remorse, which was evident both in his trial testimony and during the sentencing hearing where he apologized to FTX victims
  • His role as a follower rather than mastermind—the court found that while Singh knew about the fraud and failed to stop it, he did not design or initiate the scheme
  • The quality and importance of his testimony, which prosecutors described as critical to securing Bankman-Fried's conviction
  • The fact that Singh, unlike some other cooperators, did not attempt to minimize his own culpability or shift all blame to others

The government's sentencing memorandum praised Singh's cooperation as going "above and beyond" what was required by his plea agreement. Prosecutors noted that Singh had provided truthful and detailed information even when it was personally embarrassing or incriminating, and that he had never attempted to obstruct the investigation or protect other defendants. The judge also considered victim impact statements but concluded that Singh's cooperation ultimately served the interests of justice more than additional incarceration would.

Comparison to Bankman-Fried

Singh's no-prison sentence stood in stark contrast to Bankman-Fried's 25-year sentence, illustrating the profound difference cooperation can make in federal sentencing. Both men were convicted of overlapping charges related to the same fraud scheme, but their sentencing outcomes could not have been more different.

Bankman-Fried received 25 years in federal prison after being convicted at trial, while Singh received time served with no additional incarceration after pleading guilty and cooperating. The disparity reflected several factors:

  • Bankman-Fried was identified as the leader and architect of the fraud, while Singh was characterized as a subordinate who followed Bankman-Fried's directives
  • Bankman-Fried maintained his innocence and fought the charges at trial, while Singh immediately accepted responsibility
  • Bankman-Fried showed little remorse and continued to make public statements minimizing the harm to victims, while Singh expressed genuine contrition
  • Singh provided substantial assistance that helped convict Bankman-Fried, while Bankman-Fried provided no cooperation

The contrast between the two sentences became a textbook example of how the substantial assistance departure operates in federal criminal cases, particularly in white-collar prosecutions where cooperators' testimony is often essential to convicting higher-level defendants.

Civil and Regulatory Matters

SEC and CFTC

Singh faced parallel civil enforcement actions from the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) in addition to his criminal case. The SEC charged Singh with violations of federal securities laws related to the offer and sale of FTX equity and crypto assets, while the CFTC charged him with commodities fraud related to the operation of FTX's derivatives platform.

Singh settled both civil cases, agreeing to permanent injunctions and cooperating with the agencies' ongoing investigations into other FTX-related matters. Unlike in criminal cases where cooperation can result in reduced prison time, civil settlements typically require disgorgement of ill-gotten gains and civil penalties. However, given that Singh's assets were largely depleted by FTX's bankruptcy and criminal forfeiture, the civil monetary components of his settlements were largely symbolic.

Forfeiture

As part of his plea agreement, Singh agreed to forfeit assets derived from his role at FTX, including real estate and investment positions. The forfeiture order covered:

  • His equity stake in FTX, once worth hundreds of millions of dollars on paper but rendered worthless by the bankruptcy
  • His $3.7 million home in the Bahamas, which was purchased with funds traced to the fraud
  • Bank accounts and investment accounts containing proceeds from his FTX compensation
  • Any other assets determined to be traceable to the criminal conduct

The forfeiture effectively left Singh financially destitute, a dramatic fall from his status as one of the wealthiest individuals under 30 just two years earlier. Forfeited assets were to be liquidated and made available to the FTX bankruptcy estate for distribution to victims, though the Bahamas property and other assets would need to be sold in order to generate recoverable funds.

Political Donation Clawbacks

Singh's political donations became the subject of clawback efforts by the FTX bankruptcy estate, which sought to recover the approximately $9.3 million in contributions he made using misappropriated customer funds. The bankruptcy trustee filed lawsuits and sent demand letters to political committees and candidates who received donations from Singh, arguing that the funds were fraudulently transferred and should be returned to the estate for distribution to creditors.

Many recipients voluntarily returned Singh's donations or donated equivalent amounts to charity once the fraud came to light. However, some political committees argued they had spent the funds in good faith and were protected from clawback under applicable law. The bankruptcy litigation over political donations extended beyond Singh to include the approximately $100 million in total political contributions made by FTX executives and entities.

The clawback efforts highlighted an unusual aspect of the FTX fraud—the extent to which stolen customer funds had been funneled into the American political system, creating awkward situations for candidates and committees who had unknowingly accepted tainted money.

Personal Impact

Singh's career and personal life were completely upended by the FTX scandal, transforming him from a celebrated technology prodigy into a convicted felon:

  • His reputation in the technology industry was destroyed, making it unlikely he will work in tech or finance again given his felony convictions for fraud
  • His significant wealth—estimated at several hundred million dollars on paper—was entirely forfeited or lost in FTX's bankruptcy
  • He faced criminal prosecution and the realistic possibility of decades in prison before his cooperation secured leniency
  • He was required to testify against Bankman-Fried, a former mentor and friend, describing in open court how Bankman-Fried had directed the fraud
  • His relationship with his family was strained by the public nature of the scandal and his criminal conduct

Associates and attorneys who worked with Singh described him as genuinely remorseful and emotionally devastated by his role in the fraud, distinguishing him from Bankman-Fried's defiant posture and continued minimization of harm to victims. Singh's emotional state was evident in his court appearances, where he appeared visibly distressed when discussing the impact on FTX customers.

During his sentencing hearing, Singh addressed the court and victims directly, stating that he was "overwhelmed with remorse" and that he thought about the victims' losses every day. He acknowledged that no apology could undo the harm caused and that he would carry the shame of his actions for the rest of his life.

Legacy

Effective Cooperation

Singh's case, alongside Gary Wang's, demonstrated the extraordinary value federal prosecutors place on early and comprehensive cooperation in complex white-collar cases. Both received time-served sentences despite their significant roles in a multi-billion dollar fraud that caused devastating losses to thousands of victims.

The lenient sentences sparked some public controversy, with victims and their advocates questioning whether cooperators should avoid prison entirely when their crimes caused such massive harm. However, prosecutors defended the sentences as necessary to incentivize cooperation in cases where convicting the most culpable defendants requires insider testimony. Without Singh's and Wang's cooperation, proving Bankman-Fried's intent and knowledge would have been substantially more difficult, potentially allowing the fraud's mastermind to escape accountability.

The FTX cooperators' sentences have become frequently cited examples in criminal defense practice, demonstrating to potential cooperators in other white-collar cases that even defendants facing decades of exposure can avoid prison entirely through early, comprehensive, and truthful cooperation.

Campaign Finance

The political donation aspect of Singh's case highlighted significant vulnerabilities in campaign finance regulation and enforcement. Singh's $9.3 million in contributions, part of approximately $100 million in total FTX-related political spending, demonstrated how easily fraudulent funds can be laundered into the political system through straw donor schemes.

The case revealed several weaknesses in campaign finance oversight:

  • Political committees conduct minimal due diligence on the source of large donations, accepting them as long as they comply with surface-level legal requirements
  • Straw donor schemes—where individuals make contributions on behalf of others—are difficult to detect in real-time, typically coming to light only after fraud investigations
  • The coordination between Bankman-Fried and Singh to make contributions was not detected by the Federal Election Commission until prosecutors exposed it during their criminal investigation
  • Even after the fraud was revealed, recovering the political donations proved legally complex, with some committees arguing they were protected recipients who had spent the funds in good faith

Singh's guilty plea to campaign finance violations represented a relatively rare federal prosecution of straw donor schemes, most of which are handled civilly by the FEC if addressed at all. The case led to renewed calls for stronger campaign finance enforcement and real-time verification of donation sources.

See Also

Frequently Asked Questions

Q: Who is Nishad Singh?

Nishad Singh was the Director of Engineering at FTX cryptocurrency exchange who pleaded guilty to fraud and campaign finance charges and received no prison time due to his cooperation with prosecutors.


Q: Did Nishad Singh go to prison?

No. Singh received a sentence of time served with no prison time in October 2024 due to his extensive cooperation with federal prosecutors in the case against Sam Bankman-Fried.


Q: What was Nishad Singh's role at FTX?

Singh served as Director of Engineering, overseeing the technical systems at FTX. He was one of the most senior executives at the company and held a significant ownership stake.


Q: How much did Nishad Singh donate to political campaigns?

Singh donated approximately $9 million to Democratic candidates and causes during the 2022 election cycle, making him one of the largest individual political donors that year.


Q: Why did Nishad Singh avoid prison?

Prosecutors credited Singh's immediate and extensive cooperation, including his testimony at Bankman-Fried's trial, as the reason for recommending leniency. The judge agreed his cooperation was extraordinary.


References


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