Former Coinbase manager, 2 others, charged in crypto insider trading scheme after trying to flee the country

The U.S. government is starting to pay attention to the issue of digital currency. So far this year, we've had milestone arrests in two of the largest hacking cases.

According to the US Attorney's Office for the Southern District of New York, this is the first ever scheme of its kind in the world. Two crimes have been charged with, wire fraud conspiracy and wire fraud, both of which are related to trading based on confidential information.

Ishan Wahi, the product manager, had advanced knowledge of thecryptocurrencies that would soon be listed on the largest exchange in the United States. There is an influx of retail investors when a token is added to a platform. Those who got in at a lower price before the Coinbase listing will make more money.

Ishan's brother and his friend were given this information before the public announcement of the public listing of the company. The public announcement that the token would be added to Coinbase led to the purchase of at least 25 different assets by the two men.

According to the scheme, it made three people approximately 1.5 million dollars.

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According to the Department of Justice, they were tipped off by a person on the internet who said that he had found a wallet with hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of coins in it.

The internal investigation was launched after seeing the account. On May 11, the company told Ishan that they wanted him to attend an in-person meeting on May 16 about the asset listing process. He told his employer that he was going. Law enforcement stopped Wahi before he boarded the one-way flight to India.

Ishan and his brother were taken into custody. Sameer hasn't been caught yet. The maximum sentence is 20 years.

The SEC made a bombshell announcement after these charges were announced. Securities fraud charges were filed by the SEC related to the case.

The securities listed are AMP, RLY, DDX, XYO, RGT and POWR.

Proponents of cryptocurrencies have argued that they are commodities. Securities that show ownership in a company have a more strict set of rules to follow. The SEC doesn't agree with some token.

In May, the company updated their own post about the probe. They seem to focus more on the fact that one of their own employees was charged with insider trading rather than the fact that the SEC declared that some cryptocurrencies are securities.

You better believe that there have been plenty of prior insider trading schemes in this wildly unregulated and shady market. You can be sure that this won't be the last time that the DOJ files charges of insider trading inCryptocurrencies.