SEC reaches settlement with former Coinbase product manager in insider trading case

The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) is prepared to settle insider trading claims against Ishan Vahi, a former Coinbase product manager on its Bitcoin exchange.

According to court filings, the SEC has reached a settlement in principle with the defendant. The agency is also negotiating the settlement of claims against his brother Nihil Vahi.

The SEC and the defendants seek to move the case deadline to June 15, 2023, to give the parties sufficient time to complete the proceedings.

Since October 2020, Ishan Vahi worked on listings at Coinbase. From June 2021 to April 2022, he breached the platform’s confidentiality rules by providing insider information to his brother and his brother’s partner.

In July 2022, law enforcement arrested Ishan Vahi, Nihil Vahi and Samir Ramani. They were charged with conspiring to defraud in a crypto-asset insider trading scheme, yielding profits of at least $1.5 million.

In September, Nihil Vahi pleaded guilty. He agreed with the investigators’ version that he traded on the basis of non-public information about a planned Coinbase listing of a digital asset.

In February 2023, Ishan Vahi pleaded guilty to two counts of insider trading.