Ishan Wahi et al.

U.S. SECURITIES AND EXCHANGE COMMISSION
Litigation Release No. 25947 / March 11, 2024

Securities and Exchange Commission v. Ishan Wahi et al., No. 22-civ-01009 (W.D. Wash. filed July 21, 2022)

SEC Obtains Default Judgment Against Friend of Former Coinbase Manager for Insider Trading in Crypto Asset Securities

On March 1, 2024, the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Washington entered a final judgment against Sameer Ramani, who was previously charged for engaging in insider trading through a scheme to trade ahead of multiple announcements regarding at least nine crypto asset securities that would be made available for trading on the Coinbase platform.

The SEC’s complaint alleged that Ramani received tips from his friend, Ishan Wahi, who was then a product manager at Coinbase and helped to coordinate the platform’s public listing announcements. These announcements included what crypto assets would be made available for trading. According to the complaint, Coinbase treated such information as confidential and warned its employees not to trade on the basis of, or tip others with, that information. The complaint alleges that, from at least June 2021 to April 2022, in breach of his duties, Ishan repeatedly tipped the timing and content of upcoming listing announcements to Ramani and to Nikhil Wahi, Ishan’s brother. Ahead of those announcements, which usually resulted in an increase in the assets’ prices, Ramani and Nikhil Wahi allegedly purchased at least 25 crypto assets, at least nine of which were securities, and then typically sold them shortly after the announcements for a profit.

The judgment, entered on the basis of default, enjoined Ramani from violating the anti-fraud provisions of Section 10(b) of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 and Rule 10b-5 thereunder. The judgment ordered Ramani to pay disgorgement of $817,602 and a civil penalty of $1,635,204. The court previously entered final judgments against Ishan and Nikhil Wahi, so the final judgment against Ramani concludes the litigation in this matter.

The SEC’s litigation was led by Daniel Maher and Peter Lallas, and supervised by James Connor and Olivia Choe.