Today the Department of Justice charged a former Coinbase employee and two co-conspirators in the “first ever” crypto insider trading scheme.
The three men’s alleged scheme was brought to light in April by a tweet from crypto personality Cobie, which prompted an investigation by Coinbase and led to the criminals’ eventual arrest.
The trio allegedly generated $1.5 million from their scheme; each individual faces up to 40 years in prison.
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A former Coinbase employee and two co-conspirators are being charged by the Justice Department and the SEC in the “first ever” crypto insider trading scheme. Law enforcement claims the scheme was discovered thanks to a tweet from a prominent crypto community member.
Alleged Insider Traders Charged
The Department of Justice (DOJ) announced today that it had charged three people in the “first ever” crypto insider trading scheme. Former Coinbase product manager Ishan Wahi, his brother Nikhil Wahi, and a friend, Sameer Ramani, are being charged with wire fraud conspiracy and wire fraud in connection to a scheme to commit insider trading.
Within hours, the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) also announced charges against the trio for the same alleged scheme. In that case, the SEC “seeks permanent injunctive relief, disgorgement with prejudgment interest, and civil penalties.”
Coinbase is one of the largest crypto exchanges in the world. Due to its popularity, the market value of cryptocurrency projects tends to increase significantly upon listing on the website. According to the DOJ, Ishan Wahi allegedly used his position at Coinbase to inform his co-conspirators of upcoming new cryptocurrency listings so that they could preemptively buy the coins and sell them after listing.
The DOJ estimates the trio collectively generated roughly $1.5 million in unrealized gains over 14 different listing announcements from at least August 2021 to May 2022. Each individual faces up to 40 years in prison in addition to civil penalties.
The Wahi brothers have both been apprehended, while Ramani remains at large.
Crypto Influence Influences Law Enforcement
Interestingly, crypto personality Cobie helped the Justice Department make its “first ever” crypto insider trading charges. The DOJ states the scheme may have gone unnoticed until Cobie posted a tweet on April 12 stating that he’d “found an ETH address that bought hundreds of thousands of dollars of tokens exclusively featured in the Coinbase Asset Listing post about 24 hours before it was published.”
Coinbase publicly responded to the discovery; then, on May 11, the company emailed Wahi to schedule an in-person meeting regarding Coinbase’s asset listing process. After that, Wahi attempted to leave the United States for India but was stopped by law enforcement.
Cobie, whose real name is Jordan Fish, co-hosts the popular crypto podcast UpOnly alongside Brian Krogsgard, aka Ledger.
Disclosure: At the time of writing, the author of this piece owned ETH and several other cryptocurrencies.
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ONE of Vladimir Putin’s key aides and a favourite to succeed him has reportedly survived an assassination attempt, a Kremlin insider has claimed.
Nikolai Patrushev, head of the Russian security council, has been described in some circles as the only person that Putin truly trusts.
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Putin’s key rival Nikolai Patrushev has allegedly been poisonedCredit: Getty
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Patrushev has been described as the only man Putin ‘truly trusts’Credit: AP
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Patrushev left, has also been seen as the man to succeed PutinCredit: AFP
The 71-year-old is claimed to have been poisoned, according to sources in the Kremlin.
“It is known that Nikolai Patrushev felt unwell in the evening after work, almost immediately after he went home,” the source claimed.
“Security quickly worked, immediately calling a team of doctors to him.
“After the examination, the medical workers who arrived said that urgent hospitalization was necessary and Patrushev was taken by the FSO officers in their transport, accompanied by medical workers, to the medical unit that serves the president.”
The source added: “After rendering assistance, Patrushev was taken home in a stable condition. The results of his analysis confirmed that the toxic substance was a synthetic poison.”
These sensational allegations appeared anonymously on the General SVR channel on the messaging app Telegram, which claims to have insider sources in the Kremlin.
“Information about both the assassination attempt itself and the investigation into this assassination attempt is kept in strict secrecy,” the post added.
Patrushev, who formerly headed Russia’s FSB secret service, is seen as Putin’s right-hand man, having known the 69-year-old since both were in the KGB back in the 1970s.
He is believed to have stepped in as de facto president during Putin’s long absences for alleged medical treatment and has also been a key architect of the war in Ukraine.
His son Dmitry, 44, Russia’s agriculture minister, has been tipped by some pundits as Putin’s likely successor.
The report claimed that Patrushev “was saved by timely medical care and, probably, by an insufficiently high concentration of the poisonous substance that entered the body through the skin”.
Putin was told of the alleged attack only “when Patrushev’s life was no longer in danger,” it was claimed.
The post didn’t list any suspects who could have carried out an attempted assassination but pointed the finger at in-fighting within the Russian leader’s inner circle.
Patrushev is seen as one of the biggest cheerleaders for war in Ukraine, and the man who convinced Putin the country needed “denazification”.
WHO ARE THE SILOVIKI?
FROM the Russian for ‘people of force’, meet the siloviki – the real power behind Putin’s throne.
Alexander Bortnikov – Head of Russia’s FSB – which replaced the KGB, he has also known Putin since the 1970s, when both served in the Leningrad KGB. He controls thousands of people, covering everything from counter-terrorism to intimidating opposition parties.
Sergei Chemezov – Head of state-owned defence company Rostec, Chemezov was stationed with Putin in East Germany in the 80s when both were in the KGB. Has become filthy rich through his ties to Putin, amassing luxury yachts as well as a number of Spanish villas.
Sergei Naryshkin – Head of Russia’s foreign intelligence service. Reportedly ex-KGB, he has worked with Putin since the 90s, when the president was deputy mayor of St Petersburg. Earlier this year, he accused the West of being behind Alexei Navalny’s poisoning.
Nikolai Patrushev – Head of Russia’s security council, Patrushev has known Putin since his KGB days in the 1970s. Is accused of masterminding the 2006 assassination in London of ex-Russian spy Alexander Litvinenko.
Igor Sechin – Considered Putin’s “de-facto deputy”, Sechin is head of state-owned oil firm Rosneft. He was gifted the powerful company by Putin, just before it took over Yukos, a company controlled by now-exiled Russian billionaire Mikhail Khodorkovsky.
Sergei Shoigu – Russia’s defence minister, he regularly goes hunting and fishing with Putin. Is seen by some as a potential successor. Following the disastrous Ukraine invasion, he was not seen in public for more than a month, sparking rumours he had been sidelined.
The date of the alleged attack wasn’t given, but Patrushev hasn’t been seen in public for much of the past month.
He was spotted on a visit to the far east of Russia on July 6 but then remained out of the public eye until Friday, almost 10 days later, when he supposedly attended a security council meeting.
Last month, an ex-CIA insider claimed the coup to topple Putin has “already begun”.
Former CIA Moscow station chief Daniel Hoffman claimed Putin’s cronies will look to secretly overthrow the president if his invasion of Ukraine starts to go south.
“These guys that are going to do it are going to be so secret about it so that Putin doesn’t find them and kill them first,” Hoffman said.
“It’ll happen all of a sudden. And he’ll be dead.”
“Nobody’s gonna ask, ‘Hey Vladimir, would you like to leave?’ No. It’s a f**king hammer to the head and he’s dead. Or it’s time to go to the sanatorium,” Hoffman told The Daily Beast.
The results of his analysis confirmed that the toxic substance was a synthetic poison
‘Kremlin insider’
It follows claims from security experts back in April that Putin could be ousted in a “palace coup” within the next two years.
The assessment came from intelligence analysts Dragonfly, who correctly predicted the Russian invasion in February.
It claimed that it is “highly likely that President Putin will not be in the position he is within the next two years,” as Western sanctions bite.
Dragonfly alleged Putin would be overthrown by his inner circle of six cronies – including Patrushev – described as “squat men in ill-fitting suits”.
A shadowy group of so-called “silovarchs” has propped Putin up for many years, according to intelligence experts, but their patience is believed to be wearing thin.
The word silovarch, combining the word oligarch and “siloviki” – which translates to “people of force”, refers to the generation of Russia’s political and business elite who rose through the security services.
And as Professor Daniel Treisman who coined the term explained: “If there is a failure of the state to manage multiple escalating crises, involving public protests and an economic meltdown, the Kremlin may well just lose control of Russia, and the security services would step in.
“Army leaders and others may start resisting orders from Putin as well.
“Rather than an organised conspiracy from within, there may simply be a meltdown of the regime all at once.”
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Patrushev has barely been seen in public in the past few weeksCredit: Reuters
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Putin has not listed any successorCredit: EPA
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Patrushev’s son Dmitry, 44, has also been touted as a possible Putin replacementCredit: Alamy
