The Heist
When working for a company that deals with finance or crypto trading, it’s only fair to use the company’s resources because it can be advantageous to you. However, a worker of Coinbase named Ishan Wahi has taken it to the next level because he wanted more profit or gains and he thought he could get away with it but he has been caught and charged to court.
Ishan Wahi is a product manager for Coinbase, so he’s in charge of whatever product Coinbase decides to put on the market and they are supposed to be confidential but instead, he saw it as an opportunity to manipulate the products and their prices before they enter the market and when they enter the market in order for him to earn profits on them.
After much investigation, unknowingly to Coinbase, this act has been going on for nearly a year where he continuously acquire the confidential information of when the products will be out or listed, the prices and every information concerning the products he then shares it among his brother and another business partner in a private message platform. When they get this information, they will quickly place trades ahead of the listings and get huge profits from them. In total Ishan Wahi and his partners in crime have been able to successfully manipulate 25 cryptocurrencies and gained over $1 million.
How they got caught
Coinbase made a tweet that they will be unveiling some product tokens the next and users should be ready to get them however, a user saw the tweet and immediately commented that he’s confused as to he thought the tokens were already released because a wallet had already purchased some tokens worth $100k and above and also he was planning to include it on his blog post.
When Coinbase got to know of this immediately they decided to investigate the issue and it led them to Ishan Wahi who was then immediately fired and reported to the police who was arrested before he could board a flight to India because he was aware of the situation already. Also, the other two have been arrested and charged in court and they could face 20 years in prison if they are found guilty.
According to U.S. Attorney General Damian Williams said: "Today's charges are a further reminder that Web3 is not a law-free zone. Just last month, I announced the first-ever insider trading case involving NFTs, and today I announce the first-ever insider trading case involving cryptocurrency markets. Our message with these charges is clear: fraud is a fraud, whether it occurs on the blockchain or on Wall Street."
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