Former FTX Executive Nishad Singh Dealt With Suicidal Thoughts When Crypto Currency Exchange Began to Unravel
- The 27-year-old Indian American, who worked as director of engineering is one of three close friends and associates to testify against disgraced founder Sam Bankman-Fried.
Nishad Singh was living what seemed like a perfect life — a cushy job as director of engineering at cryptocurrency exchange FTX, and a charmed life in the Bahamas. Now the 27-year-old Indian American is one of the three to testify against Sam Bankman-Fried, the disgraced founder of FTX.
Singh, along with two other former employees — Caroline Ellison, chief executive of investment firm Alameda Research, and Gary Wang, FTX’s chief technology office — worked with Bankman-Fried, their friend and boss “to grow the cryptocurrency exchange and Alameda into multibillion-dollar businesses,” according to NPR. Both companies experienced a high-profile collapse resulting in Chapter 11 bankruptcy late last year.
Singh pleaded guilty in March, to one count of wire fraud, three counts of conspiracy to commit fraud, one count of conspiracy to commit money laundering, and one count of conspiracy to defraud the United States by violating campaign finance laws. The charges against him carry a maximum prison term of 75 years.
Last week, during his testimony, Singh told the court that at Bankman-Fried’s direction, he wrote the computer code that effectively allowed Alameda to borrow from FTX tens of billions of dollars. “I defrauded customers, investors,” news reports quoted Singh as saying on the witness stand. He admitted to participating in money laundering and violating campaign finance laws as well.
Describing that he lost faith in Bankman-Fried, he attested there were numerous times during his tenure when he considered resigning.
When liquidity issues at FTX began in November 2022, Singh testified that he became “suicidal for some days,” news reports said. Describing that he lost faith in Bankman-Fried, he attested there were numerous times during his tenure when he considered resigning. “But he never went through with it because he thought his departure could raise eyebrows and imperil the company,” news reports quoted him as saying. He told the court he admired and respected Bankman-Fried, “but over time, I think a lot of that eroded, and I grew distrustful.”
Singh first met Bankman-Fried at Crystal Springs Uplands School, a private school they both attended in Northern California, according to an NPR report. He was close with Gabe Bankman-Fried, Sam Bankman-Fried’s younger brother. After he graduated from the University of California, Berkeley, where he studied computer science, he briefly worked as a software engineer at Facebook, an entry-level position, where he worked on machine learning, according to his LinkedIn profile.
Bankman-Fried recruited him to Alameda Research in 2017, where he worked as director of engineering for 17 months. In April 2019, he moved to FTX and occupied the top post of director of engineering.
In a 2020 FTX podcast, he talked about his “dream job” at Facebook and his decision to switch to Alameda Research after meeting Bankman-Fried. “It was in an apartment at the time, it was quite early. I think I first visited Alameda when it was like a month into its existence,” he said, adding that there were around five other people in the apartment and the scene was chaotic. “What was obvious was that the things they wanted to do, were really important and really fruitful.”