Reported by: Corinne Ramey and Alexander Osipovich

FTX co-founder and former director of engineering Nishad Singh pleaded guilty to fraud charges and agreed to cooperate against his former boss, Sam Bankman-Fried, making him the third person in the FTX founder’s orbit to do so.

Mr. Singh, 27 years old, pleaded guilty to six criminal counts, including conspiring to commit securities and commodities fraud, during a hearing Tuesday in federal court in Manhattan. 

“I’m unbelievably sorry for my role in all of this and the harm that it has caused,” he told U.S. District Judge Lewis Kaplan.

Mr. Singh said that in mid-2022 he learned that Mr. Bankman-Fried’s crypto-investment firm Alameda Research was borrowing FTX customer funds. By September 2022, Alameda was no longer able to repay the billions of dollars that it had taken from FTX, Mr. Singh said. He said that, at the direction of Mr. Bankman-Fried, he falsified FTX’s revenues to make the company more appealing to investors.

“I had a strong belief that he would not share FTX’s full financial condition,” Mr. Singh said of Mr. Bankman-Fried.

Mr. Singh also admitted that he made illegal donations to political candidates and political-action committees using Alameda funds. The contributions were to enhance Mr. Bankman-Fried and FTX’s political influence, he said.

Read full report: https://www.wsj.com/articles/ftx-co-founder-nishad-singh-pleads-guilty-to-fraud-charges-d9936c87