From the Justice Department:

Beginning in approximately October 2020, ISHAN WAHI worked at Coinbase as a product manager assigned to a Coinbase asset listing team. In that role, ISHAN WAHI was involved in the highly confidential process of listing crypto assets on Coinbaseโ€™s exchanges and had detailed and advanced knowledge of which crypto assets Coinbase was planning to list and the timing of public announcements about those crypto asset listings. Beginning at least in August 2021 and continuing through May 2022, ISHAN WAHI was a member of a private Coinbase messaging channel reserved for a small number of Coinbase employees with direct involvement in the Coinbase asset listing process. The private channel was used to discuss, among other things, โ€œexact announcement / launch dates + timelinesโ€ that Coinbase did not wish to share with all of its employees.

The Insider Trading Scheme:

On at least 14 occasions beginning at least in June 2021 and continuing through April 2022, ISHAN WAHI knew in advance both that Coinbase planned to list particular crypto assets and the timing of Coinbaseโ€™s public announcements of those asset listings and misappropriated that Coinbase confidential information by tipping either his brother, NIKHIL WAHI, or ISHAN WAHIโ€™s friend and associate, SAMEER RAMANI, so that they could place profitable trades in those crypto assets in advance of Coinbaseโ€™s public listing announcements.

After getting tips from ISHAN WAHI, NIKHIL WAHI and RAMANI used anonymous Ethereum blockchain wallets to acquire crypto assets shortly before Coinbase publicly announced that it was listing or considering listing these crypto assets on its exchanges. Following Coinbase public listing announcements, NIKHIL WAHI and RAMANI sold the crypto assets for a profit. Based on confidential information provided by ISHAN WAHI, NIKHIL WAHI and RAMANI collectively traded shortly in advance of at least 14 separate Coinbase public listing announcements concerning at least 25 different crypto assets. As a result of the insider trading scheme, NIKHIL WAHI and RAMANI collectively generated realized and unrealized gains totaling at least approximately $1.5 million.

To conceal their purchases of crypto assets in advance of Coinbase listing announcements, NIKHIL WAHI and RAMANI used accounts at centralized exchanges held in the names of others, and transferred funds, crypto assets, and proceeds of their scheme through multiple anonymous Ethereum blockchain wallets. NIKHIL WAHI and RAMANI also regularly created and used new Ethereum blockchain wallets without any prior transaction history in order to further conceal their involvement in the scheme.

ISHAN WAHIโ€™s Attempt to Flee the United States:

On April 11, 2022, Coinbase announced that it was considering potentially listing dozens of crypto assets on its exchanges. Based on Coinbase confidential information provided by ISHAN WAHI, RAMANI caused multiple anonymous Ethereum blockchain wallets to purchase large quantities of at least six of the crypto assets that were to be included in Coinbaseโ€™s April 11, 2022 listing announcement.

Shortly after RAMANI traded in advance of Coinbaseโ€™s April 11 listing announcement, on April 12, 2022, a Twitter account that is well known in the crypto community tweeted regarding an Ethereum blockchain wallet โ€œthat bought hundreds of thousands of dollars of tokens exclusively featured in the Coinbase Asset Listing post about 24 hours before it was published.โ€ The trading activity referenced in the April 12 tweet was the trading caused by RAMANI. Coinbase thereafter publicly replied on Twitter noting that it had already begun investigating the matter and a few weeks later stated in a public blog post that any Coinbase employee who leaked confidential company information would be โ€œimmediately terminated and referred to relevant authorities (potentially for criminal prosecution).โ€

On May 11, 2022, Coinbaseโ€™s director of security operations emailed ISHAN WAHI to inform him that he should appear for an in-person meeting relating to Coinbaseโ€™s asset listing process at Coinbaseโ€™s Seattle, Washington office on Monday, May 16, 2022. ISHAN WAHI confirmed he would attend the meeting.

On the evening of Sunday, May 15, 2022, ISHAN WAHI purchased a one-way flight to India that was scheduled to depart the next day shortly before ISHAN WAHI was supposed to be interviewed by Coinbase. Prior to boarding the flight, ISHAN WAHI falsely told Coinbase employees that he had already departed for India when he had not. In the hours between booking the flight and his scheduled departure, ISHAN WAHI called and texted NIKHIL WAHI and RAMANI about Coinbaseโ€™s investigation, and sent both of them a photograph of the messages he had received on May 11, 2022, from Coinbaseโ€™s director of security operations. Prior to boarding the May 16, 2022 flight to India, ISHAN WAHI was stopped by law enforcement and prevented from leaving the country.

You can read the entire transcript here: