Coinbase To Receive $470k From Wahi Brothers

Under the mandatory victim restitution act, Coinbase will be reimbursed for expenses and lost wages from the DOJ investigation into the Wahi brothers’ insider trading scheme

article-image

Primakov/Shutterstock modified by Blockworks

share

Coinbase will receive $470,000 from Nikhil and Ishan Wahi in restitution to cover “five grand jury subpoenas requests (including subparts) for documents and information” and lost wages of employees who had to focus on the Department of Justice’s Special Investigations and Security Departments investigation. 

The exchange’s lawyers submitted a letter to the courts last week asking to be reimbursed for expenses related to the Department of Justice’s investigation into the alleged insider traders. 

“While serving the term of the imprisonment, the defendant shall make installment payments toward restitution and may do so through the Bureau of Prison Inmate Financial Responsibility Plan. Any unpaid amount upon release from prison will be paid in installments of at least 10 percent of the defendant’s gross income on the 15th day of each month,” the court document states.   

Coinbase asked for the amount under the Mandatory Victim Restitution Act, which is meant to ensure that victims are paid back for lost income and expenses that occur from investigations into offenses including wire fraud. 

Ishan, a former Coinbase employee, and his brother Nikhil were accused of trading over 20 crypto assets in a scheme that operated from June 2021 to April 2022. The brothers and their accomplice Sameer Ramani netted over $1 million in profits. 

Nikhil Wahi was sentenced to 10 months in prison in January. Ishan faces sentencing on May 9. 

The two are also nearing a settlement agreement with the SEC, which claims that the assets traded were securities. Both Coinbase and the Wahi brothers have denied this claim. 

The SEC has until June 15 to review and discuss the settlement, and the Wahi brothers will then have until July 15 to reply.


Start your day with top crypto insights from David Canellis and Katherine Ross. Subscribe to the Empire newsletter.

Explore the growing intersection between crypto, macroeconomics, policy and finance with Ben Strack, Casey Wagner and Felix Jauvin. Subscribe to the Forward Guidance newsletter.

Get alpha directly in your inbox with the 0xResearch newsletter — market highlights, charts, degen trade ideas, governance updates, and more.

The Lightspeed newsletter is all things Solana, in your inbox, every day. Subscribe to daily Solana news from Jack Kubinec and Jeff Albus.

Tags

Upcoming Events

Javits Center North | 445 11th Ave

Tues - Thurs, March 18 - 20, 2025

Blockworks’ Digital Asset Summit (DAS) will feature conversations between the builders, allocators, and legislators who will shape the trajectory of the digital asset ecosystem in the US and abroad.

recent research

kamino cover.jpg

Research

Kamino has solidified its position as the leading money market on Solana and is emerging as a DeFi bluechip. Although DeFi competition is fierce, Kamino has kept iterating on its product to provide the best-in-class UX, paired with a robust risk management framework and battle-tested infrastructure. Given the rollout of Kamino Lend V2, the protocol may scale aggressively over the coming months, penetrating previously untapped markets in Solana DeFi.

article-image

Option premiums and estimated daily volatility for bitcoin are projected to rise significantly around Nov. 6-8

article-image

Betting on opinions will make sentiment analysis more valuable and honest

article-image

Base DEX volumes have now eclipsed Kraken’s

article-image

Five of the Mag 7 companies are slated to report earnings this week, while 169 companies in the S&P 500 are due to publish quarterly results

article-image

VanEck’s Matthew Sigel noted this morning that bitcoin, which had lagged with low volatility before the 2020 election, is doing the same now

article-image

The Solana network itself did not appear to experience degraded performance during the airdrop