Ever-since the arrest of FTX kingpin Sam Bankman-Fried (SBF) and confessional statements by two of the executives of FTX and Alameda Research, one of the key cohorts and of SBF, Nishad Singh has gone into hiding.
According to media reports, Nishad Singh was FTX’s Director of Engineering and had a 7.8 percent stake in the fraudulent crypto exchange and the 27-year-old has been out of the public eye even as other top execs make headlines for their role in FTX’s collapse. Per bankruptcy filing, Singh received a US$543 million loan from Alameda Research, while it is anticipated that he has smuggled-out a significant portion of this fund to Dubai, India and few other countries. Nishad Singh, has remained out of the public eye even as other top figures have ended up in the crosshairs of investigations into the exchange.
FTX filed for bankruptcy protection in November 2022, and investigations and charges against top executives at the firm are related to the misuse of customer funds by the firm’s affiliate trading arm, Alameda Research.
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“FTX Group’s collapse appears to stem from the absolute concentration of control in the hands of a very small group of grossly inexperienced and unsophisticated individuals”, John Ray, FTX’s new chief executive officer said during bankruptcy proceedings.
While most of the attention in the media has been paid to Sam Bankman-Fried, there were other executive involved in what prosecutors have called “one of the biggest financial frauds in American history”, including Alameda CEO Caroline Ellison and FTX co-founder Gary Wang. Both have pleaded guilty to charges they defrauded investors and are cooperating with prosecutors.
According to the Wall Street Journal, Nishad Singh was one of few people who had knew that FTX was misusing customer funds, along with Bankman-Fried, Ellison, and Wang. Singh’s 7.8 percent stake, which also included FTX subsidiary FTX.US, was worth about US$572 million in March 2022.
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“Gary is scared, Nishad is ashamed and guilty”, Sam Bankman-Fried told a Vox reporter after the firm filed for bankruptcy. “It hit [Nishad] hard”.
Nishad Singh was a high school friend of Sam Bankman-Fried’s brother, Gabe Bankman-Fried. The former executive worked for a time as an engineer at Facebook (now Meta) before Sam Bankman-Fried recruited him for Alameda Research, according to Singh’s LinkedIn page, which has been taken down.
“In addition to building out much of our technological infrastructure and managing most of our dev team, his treatment of employees has earned him sole membership in our Slack group ‘Kings of Kindness'”, Sam Bankman-Fried previously wrote in a blog post.
In 2012, Singh also set the world record for fastest 100-mile run by a 16 year old, according local newspaper The Mercury News. Sam Bankman-Fried referenced Nishad Singh as a billionaire.
According to nonprofit OpenSecrets, a year after Nishad Singh became FTX’s director of engineering, he became a steady donor for the Democratic Party. He gave US$8 million to federal campaigns of Democratic candidates in the 2022 election cycle.
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Meanwhile, people are commenting on social media and news sites about the case of Nishad Singh. Here are few of those comments:
Ramin: Singh took the money and sent it to India to all his relatives to hide the money for him. Good luck finding the money. FTX gave the money from investors to their management team, as a gift.
Marco: As currently applied, capital punishment in America is not a deterrent, nor will it ever be. Capital punishment would be extremely effective applied to white collar crime. China, despite its draconian control of citizens, has gotten one thing right: white collar criminals are held accountable accordingly. The US should follow this example.
Ames: It was all good fun until it wasn’t.
John: Just like peel off an onion – Slowly but surely, another piece of truth comes out…I’m glad come 2023, the Republican party will have a major majority to conduct some major investigations ahead…Be able to find out and punish who has committed the serious “white collar and/or criminal crimes”…for a change.
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Phil: I’m fairly certain effective altruism IS NOT about donating money to politicians. There are very few groups on earth less trust worthy and effective in serving the public good. These guys at FTX gave money to court FAVORS (doesn’t everyone who gives 7 figures)?
Bottom line is he was certainly in in the scam and while he is making good on his loan payments (he may not be forced to pay it back depending on if he knew the loan shouldn’t have happened) he should expect to be charged too
Parker: More dirty money to the Democratic Party by Singh now. I wonder how much was given when you break it all down.
Brian: So, SFB funneled money into Alameda and Caroline “lent” $500 million of it to Singh. Got it.
Adam: Why is this crook not in jail also?? This makes no sense he should be #2 on the list as he designed the programs that created the scam.
