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Sam Bankman-Fried- Case Archive
personpersonNishad SinghNishad SinghFormer head of engineering at FTX and an early employee of Alameda Research.← All People
WitnessFTX and Alameda Research

Nishad Singh

Former head of engineering at FTX and an early employee of Alameda Research.

AppearedFederal Criminal Trial
1,475 lines·42 proceedings·36 mentions

About

Nishad Singh testified for the government as FTX's former head of engineering. He admitted participating in fraud, money laundering, and campaign-finance offenses and testified under a cooperation agreement, matters the jury could consider in assessing his incentives and conduct.

Singh described Bankman-Fried as exercising authority over FTX's business and technical decisions. His testimony addressed Alameda's receipt of customer deposits, the fiat@FTX accounting issue, Alameda's ability to maintain a negative balance, and its large line of credit. He said he learned in September 2022 that Alameda was borrowing $13 billion from FTX and that customer funds accounted for much of the shortfall.

Singh also testified about disputed financial entries and FTX's November withdrawal crisis. He said he refused a request to backdate locked Serum transfers for collateral reporting, while admitting that he made other backdated entries that increased FTX's reported 2021 revenue above $1 billion. He described objecting to proposed public assurances during the crisis and characterized Bankman-Fried's statements that FTX was fine and could cover customer holdings as false.

The defense questioned Singh about his spending objections, personal purchases, memory, code explanations, political donations, and changing understanding of Alameda's borrowing. Singh acknowledged possible legitimate benefits from some expenditures and operational reasons for certain code features. He said he knew he had acted wrongfully when he helped alter Serum staking-fee revenue in December 2021, suspected improper Alameda borrowing by June 2022, and understood by September that the money was not there.

On redirect, Singh said he had not reviewed prosecutors' interview notes before cross-examination. He distinguished a proposed $477 million options loan that existed only on paper from transfers of actual funds, said many political-donation transfers lacked genuine loan terms, and linked his contemplated resignation to knowing he was participating in criminal conduct. He also addressed forfeiting a house purchased while he understood he was putting himself ahead of customers. The court instructed jurors that Bankman-Fried was not charged in this case with campaign-finance crimes.

Trial Record (42)

FederalFederal Criminal TrialOct 3, 2023 – Nov 2, 2023Called by prosecution

Nishad Singh, FTX's former head of engineering, admitted his own crimes and testified for the government about Alameda's use of customer funds, special code features, disputed financial entries, political donations, and Bankman-Fried's authority and crisis-era statements. Cross-examination tested Singh's memory, motives, responsibility, and knowledge timeline before redirect clarified several disputed points.

Day 2

Day 3

Day 4

DirectGary Wang — DirectGary WangNicolas RoosMentioned

Summary

Gary Wang testified that Alameda received undisclosed code privileges and a line of credit exceeding $65 billion, used customer funds, accumulated multibillion-dollar shortfalls, and remained central to FTX's withdrawal crisis and post-bankruptcy asset transfers.

Mentioned in this proceeding.

Day 5

Day 6

Day 7

Day 9

DirectNishad Singh — DirectNishad SinghNicolas Roos7highlights855lines spoken

Summary

Nishad Singh admitted his own crimes and described Alameda's special account privileges, the multibillion-dollar customer-fund shortfall, backdated financial entries, political donations made in his name, and public assurances during FTX's November 2022 collapse.

Highlights (7)

admissionSingh admitted committing fraud, money laundering, and campaign-finance violations, named four associates, and testified that he continued approving transactions after learning in September 2022 of what he believed was an $8 billion customer-fund deficit.Open in transcript →
Quote“I defrauded customers, investors, I participated in money laundering, and I violated campaign finance laws.”— Nishad SinghSingh opened his direct examination with an explicit admission of the categories of crimes he committed at FTX.Open in transcript →
testimony highlightSingh testified that Bankman-Fried asked him to backdate transfers of locked Serum so Alameda would appear to have held more collateral; Singh said he understood the intended recipient of the data to be the CFTC and refused to perform the transaction.Open in transcript →
Quote“It felt wrong. I mean, I was fine giving up my personal assets. I'd taken on debts and given up my assets for the company countless times. But I understood the purpose of this exercise to be, you know, to fool a US regulator and to fool employees of the company, and I wasn't comfortable with that.”— Nishad SinghSingh explained why he refused Bankman-Fried's request to backdate collateral transfers.Open in transcript →
Show all 7 highlights
emotional momentSingh described a private balcony conversation in which Bankman-Fried acknowledged being short on deliverable assets and estimated that about $5 billion could be delivered within 24 hours; Singh then described feeling blindsided, horrified, and betrayed.Open in transcript →
admissionSingh admitted making and backdating monthly staking-fee transfers that increased FTX's stated 2021 revenue by about $50 million and moved the reported total from below to above $1 billion, testifying that Bankman-Fried told him to do it.Open in transcript →
Quote“FTX did not have enough to cover client holdings. That was the sense in which it was not fine.”— Nishad SinghSingh directly rejected the accuracy of Bankman-Fried's November 7 public assurance about client holdings.Open in transcript →

Day 10

CrossNishad Singh — CrossNishad SinghMark S. Cohen5highlights474lines spoken

Summary

Defense counsel tested Nishad Singh's memory and responsibility while examining the $8 billion fiat@ftx bug, Alameda's code privileges, backdated Serum payments, and the funding and approval of political donations.

Highlights (5)

admissionThe defense elicited that Singh first knew he had acted wrongfully when he helped doctor Serum staking-fee revenue in late December 2021. Singh then distinguished that conduct from his June 2022 suspicions about Alameda's borrowing and his September realization that the money was not there.Open in transcript →
confrontationAfter sustained questioning about what had been tracked, Singh clarified that Gary and Caroline had assured him the full fiat@ftx balance was tracked, not that anyone tracked the bug's changing effect separately.Open in transcript →
Quote“Gary assured me that the full balance, not separately the size of the error, was being tracked. Gary assured me that the fiat@FTX.com balance, which included the bug, was being tracked. Caroline assured me it was. I don't think anybody told me that the size of the bug was being tracked over time.”— Nishad SinghThe clarification narrowed what Singh said Gary and Caroline had represented about tracking the fiat@ftx balance and the bug's effect.Open in transcript →
admissionSingh explained that, after an auto-deleveraging event, FTX removed Alameda's free-collateral condition for backstop eligibility. He said the change was intended to reduce involuntary position transfers to other customers.Open in transcript →
Show all 5 highlights
Quote“That I believed that I was on the hook and I wanted to repay them.”— Nishad SinghThe statement captured Singh's acknowledgment about his perceived responsibility for political-donation funding after extended questioning about whether the transfers were loans.Open in transcript →
CrossNishad Singh — Cross ResumedNishad SinghMark S. Cohen2highlights116lines spoken

Summary

Defense counsel tested Nishad Singh's knowledge and credibility through Alameda-closure discussions, an FTX-funded house purchase, a proposed backdated debt-unwinding trade, prior government interviews, and his proffer and cooperation agreements.

Highlights (2)

admissionSingh acknowledged buying a $3.7 million Orcas Island house with money borrowed from FTX after the September balcony meeting, with the funds wired in late October.Open in transcript →
Quote“I recall speaking with the prosecutors at some point, at least one point, about my purchase of the Orcas Island home, even after I knew that it was drawing on customer funds.”— Nishad SinghSingh acknowledged that the house purchase occurred after he knew it drew on customer funds.Open in transcript →
RedirectNishad Singh — RedirectNishad SinghNicolas Roos2highlights30lines spoken

Summary

Nishad Singh clarified the provenance of prosecutor notes, his house forfeiture, an auto-deleveraging code commit, paper-only loan arrangements, political-donation transfers, and why he considered resigning in fall 2022.

Highlights (2)

Quote“So they weren't——they weren't really loans.”— Nishad SinghSingh rejected the loan characterization for political-donation transfers after describing the absence of paperwork, prior discussion, and consistent loan-sheet entries.Open in transcript →
Quote“The scale of wrongdoing was enormous.”— Nishad SinghSingh summarized why his contemplated resignation in fall 2022 differed from his earlier career-related thoughts of leaving FTX.Open in transcript →

Day 11

DirectPaige Owens — DirectPaige OwensThane RehnMentioned

Summary

FBI forensic accountant Paige Owens explained government-prepared charts tracing funds from Alameda Research, FTX Digital Markets, and North Dimension accounts through accounts associated with Samuel Bankman-Fried, Nishad Singh, and Ryan Salame to political contributions.

Mentioned in this proceeding.

Day 12

Day 14

CrossJoseph Pimbley — CrossJoseph PimbleyThane RehnMentioned

Summary

Pimbley acknowledged that his defense charts were limited database extractions that did not address intent, asset tracing, customer shortfalls, or the significance of counsel-selected account categories; the court then began Bankman-Fried's admissibility hearing outside the jury's presence.

Mentioned in this proceeding.

Day 15

Day 16

sidebarHearsay Objection to Defendant's StatementMentioned

Summary

Counsel disputed whether Bankman-Fried's proposed statement to Nishad Singh that neither of them had done anything wrong was admissible under the state-of-mind exception. The court sustained the government's hearsay objection at sidebar and repeated the ruling in open court.

Mentioned in this proceeding.

Day 17

Charge ConferenceCharge ConferenceMentioned

Summary

The court resolved extensive disputes over the final jury charge and, after reconvening, ruled that the misappropriation theory would require proof of a false statement.

Mentioned in this proceeding.

Day 18

Day 19

Jury InstructionFinal Jury InstructionsMentioned

Summary

The court delivered the final charge on all seven counts, the government's burdens, evidence and credibility, the verdict form, and unanimous deliberations.

Mentioned in this proceeding.