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Former Coinbase PM charged in cryptocurrency insider trading tipping scheme

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Re: Former Coinbase PM charged in cryptocurrency insider trading tipping scheme

#371

Post by paulpauper »

subsaharancoder wrote: post #353
paulpauper wrote: post #246

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's amazing how they already had tabs on this guy and just waited for him to leave but without arresting him sooner if you think you broke the law and want to avoid arrest, stay away from the airport. anyone who buys a ticket they get your full info and then the arrest is as easy as picking you up at the gate, nowhere to hide.

India has an extradition treaty with the U.S. https://www.state.gov/wp-content/uploads/2019/02/12873-India... sooner or later he'd be back in an orange jump suit

india is a huge country. very easy to get lost, blend in

Re: Former Coinbase PM charged in cryptocurrency insider trading tipping scheme

#372

Post by vba616 »

H8crilA wrote: post #169
wmf wrote: post #150

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"Nikhil Wahi and Ramani allegedly purchased at least 25 crypto assets, at least nine of which were securities, and then typically sold them shortly after the announcements for a profit." https://www.sec.gov/news/press-release/2022-127

Yeah, it may be a way to officially call at least some of them securities: > "We are not concerned with labels, but rather the economic realities of an offering," said Gurbir S. Grewal, Director of the SEC’s Division of Enforcement. "In this case, those realities affirm that a number of the crypto assets at issue were securities, and, as alleged, the defendants engaged in typical insider trading ahead of their listin…

I kind of see the point of those who think this is obnoxious and damaging to the rule of law, even if what Grewal says is perfectly true. Just because one part of the government thinks something is a security, even for logical reasons, doesn't mean every other part agrees. The SEC is not the supreme and only authority, which means you can't simply obey its whims.

Why does it have to be fought out in court with no master plan?

If X, Y, and Z are securities, then why can't the government label them as such and enforce that others do?

Why can't rules and regulations be made in an orderly fashion so that people know what is legal without costly litigation?

I mean, those are rhetorical questions; it seems like the reason is everybody is making it up as they go along and there's no leadership.

It's like "move fast and break things" has become so standard that nobody bothers to say "wait, breaking things because you don't look before you leap is wasteful". It's just how we do things here.

Re: Former Coinbase PM charged in cryptocurrency insider trading tipping scheme

#373

Post by ta988 »

scottiebarnes wrote: post #363
subsaharancoder wrote: post #353

Earlier quoted context omitted.

India has an extradition treaty with the U.S. https://www.state.gov/wp-content/uploads/2019/02/12873-India... sooner or later he'd be back in an orange jump suit

Question is how hard the Indian government would be willing to work to arrest and extradite him.

Depends what the US offers in exchange?

Re: Former Coinbase PM charged in cryptocurrency insider trading tipping scheme

#374

Post by hk1337 »

paulpauper wrote: post #246
romellem wrote: post #16

Wow, the indictment references [this tweet][1] that caused Coinbase to investigate the matter and ultimately led the defendant in being caught at the airport before trying to leave the country. > On May 11, 2022, Coinbase’s director of security operations emailed ISHAN WAHI to inform him that he should appear for an in-person meeting relating to Coinbase’s asset listing process at Coinbase’s Seattle, Washington offic…

It's amazing how they already had tabs on this guy and just waited for him to leave but without arresting him sooner if you think you broke the law and want to avoid arrest, stay away from the airport. anyone who buys a ticket they get your full info and then the arrest is as easy as picking you up at the gate, nowhere to hide.

Or if you do, make sure you leave the same day and not the next day.

Re: Former Coinbase PM charged in cryptocurrency insider trading tipping scheme

#375

Post by closewith »

Mo3 wrote: post #293
thehappypm wrote: post #281

Earlier quoted context omitted.

My dad always said, if shit hit the fan, he would go to Brazil. Brazil isn’t exactly lawless, but it’s such a mass of humanity and so many cultures blending together that literally nobody would stick out like a sore thumb there.

I met a guy living in Brazil once while I was staying at a hotel for work, he said he moved there specifically because he had enough of the governments reach into his personal matters. Two days later, his (Brazilian) bank started to withhold his (non-Brazilian) salary payments for money laundering suspicions because he forgot to file one random document, he was frantically trying to find a way to open a bank account…

Yes, Brazil is extremely bureaucratic and almost everything is linked to the CPF (Cadastro de Pessoa Física) tax registration number. It's necessary to open a bank account, get a phone, book a flight, rent a car, etc.

As they say, Brazil is not for amateurs.

Re: Former Coinbase PM charged in cryptocurrency insider trading tipping scheme

#376

Post by netheril96 »

gerad wrote: post #341
walrus01 wrote: post #227

Earlier quoted context omitted.

He could've taken out cash from his local bank account, turned off his phone, driven to San Ysidro and walked through the public turnstile into Tijuana. And then tried to get a flight from Mexico City to somewhere in south asia. Would have been much better than going through the US/Canada border which has a full data sharing agreement between CBSA and US CBP/ICE. (note: this is a stupid, humorous theoretical, not rea…

Isn't the whole point of crypto that you don't need to get your cash out of a bank account that the government can monitor and potentially lockdown?

But he is likely not a crypto believer. He already sold all of them, at least the tokens he was trading with insider information.

Re: Former Coinbase PM charged in cryptocurrency insider trading tipping scheme

#377

Post by netheril96 »

chollida1 wrote: post #108
giarc wrote: post #102

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What could they do though? Ask all employees to provide their personal wallet addresses then monitor that? Seems unlikely to happen.

I mean, this is exactly what happens when you work for a hedge fund. You have to provide statements for all trading accounts you and your immediate family own. So, yeah, this is exactly what coin base should be doing. They should require all employees to list all account addresses they have access to. It's a trivial ask for the employee and its trivial to scan

But it is so trivial to create more addresses than one reports to his/her employee. It is also difficult to verify that one has reported all his/her owned addresses.

Re: Former Coinbase PM charged in cryptocurrency insider trading tipping scheme

#378

Post by csomar »

Mo3 wrote: post #293
thehappypm wrote: post #281

Earlier quoted context omitted.

My dad always said, if shit hit the fan, he would go to Brazil. Brazil isn’t exactly lawless, but it’s such a mass of humanity and so many cultures blending together that literally nobody would stick out like a sore thumb there.

I met a guy living in Brazil once while I was staying at a hotel for work, he said he moved there specifically because he had enough of the governments reach into his personal matters. Two days later, his (Brazilian) bank started to withhold his (non-Brazilian) salary payments for money laundering suspicions because he forgot to file one random document, he was frantically trying to find a way to open a bank account…

I'm pretty sure the 30% of the Brazilians who don't have bank account, don't have these issues. Your friend picked to live in Brazil, but also didn't want to sacrifice his western conveniences (ie: A bank account, card, being connected to the "system"). He got the worst of both worlds.

Re: Former Coinbase PM charged in cryptocurrency insider trading tipping scheme

#379

Post by 1jbdg »

3np wrote: post #356
JumpCrisscross wrote: post #349

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> the definition of insider trading is kind of, “whatever the SEC enforces” Insider trading is a crime. The SEC cannot bring criminal complaints. Every insider trader who has gone to jail was prosecuted by the DoJ.

According to SEC: https://www.investor.gov/introduction-investing/investing-ba... FBI: https://www.fbi.gov/news/stories/insider-trading Only talk about securities. It seems to me as if it would depend a lot on if the digital asset(s) in question count as securities or not.

Nope, insider trading is a type of fraud, they’ll be charged with wire fraud and the question on securities will never arise

Re: Former Coinbase PM charged in cryptocurrency insider trading tipping scheme

#380

Post by SilasX »

ETH_start wrote: post #365
SilasX wrote: post #338

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Sure, but that role could be truncated to "convert between financial system currencies and stablecoins" while DeFi handles all the other work of an exchange, displacing centralized exchanges. And even that role might be obviated once enough people transact directly in the stablecoins. (Not necessarily saying it's likely, just delineating the hypothetical word where DeFi has maximally taken over.)

>>Sure, but that role could be truncated to "convert between financial system currencies and stablecoins" Coinbase has already started doing that, by abolishing the distinction between the stablecoin, USDC, and its bank deposit USD. It's entirely plausible that other financial institutions, beyond commpanies like Coinbase which are heavily involvd in the cryptocurrency market, begin doing that as stablecoins gain wid…

Huh? I was talking about a world where they only concert between those assets. If coinbase is additionally doing that, then that’s not what I’m describing.

And it’s it’s not even the service I was referring to (which requires that the asset classes be kept distinct).

I swear, something about that comment just set people off, when it should be uncontroversial with the caveats I gave.

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