FTX former lead engineer in talks with federal prosecutors in Bankman-Fried case

As the investigation into FTX continues, the crypto exchangeโ€™s former engineering chief Nishad Singh followed former FTX and Alameda Research executives Gary Wang and Caroline Ellison by reportedly meeting with federal prosecutors to cut a deal.

Singh attended a proffer session sometime last week at the United States Attorneyโ€™s office for the Southern District of New York for prosecutors to determine if he has valuable information to offer in the lawsuit against FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried, according to a Jan. 10 Bloomberg report.

Prosecutors are interested in Singhโ€™s insight regarding FTXโ€™s political donations as one of the charges Bankman-Fried faces is campaign finance law violations.

Singh made significant political donations himself over the years and could help prosecutors gain a better understanding of FTXโ€™s political donations.

His cooperation and information could lead to him entering a plea deal if his information is deemed valuable.

Singh will join Wang and Ellison, respectively FTXโ€™s co-founder and Alamedaโ€™s former CEO, as a former FTX-linked executive that has reached an agreement with federal prosecutors.

After Wang and Ellison entered pleas, U.S. Attorney Damian Williams issued a warning in December 2022 to those who participated in the misconduct at FTX and Alameda, saying, โ€œcome see us before we come to see you.โ€

It was reported on Jan. 5 that the United States Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) is investigating Singh for potentially having a role in defrauding FTX investors and users.

Related: FTX collapse may boost โ€˜further trustโ€™ in crypto ecosystem โ€” Nomura exec

This comes after news in December 2022 that politicians and news organizations reportedly planned to return $6.6 million in donations from FTX, with three prominent Democratic groups having decided to return over $1 million to investors that had lost funds.

It was revealed in a recent filing in Nov. 2022 that Alameda loaned $543 million to Singh, one of three related party loans given by trading firm which also included an amount of $1 billion to Bankman-Fried and $55 billion to the FTX Digital Markets co-CEO, Ryan Salame.