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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 be
by romellem 4y ago
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 office on Monday, May 16, 2022. ISHAN WAHI confirmed he would attend the meeting.
> On the evening of Sunday, May 15, 2022, ISHAN WAHI purchased a one-way flight to India that was scheduled to depart the next day shortly before ISHAN WAHI was supposed to be interviewed by Coinbase. […] Prior to boarding the May 16, 2022 flight to India, ISHAN WAHI was stopped by law enforcement and prevented from leaving the country.
[1]: https://twitter.com/cobie/status/1513874972552355846 https://twitter.com/cobie/status/1513874972552355846
- tmp_anon_22 4y agoI wonder if the Tweet Account was fed info from someone in the accused's circle who didn't get their cut.
- askmike 4y agoCoinbase shady stuff around listings has been an open secret in crypto, everyone knows about it. Dates all the way back to LTC listing and probably earlier.
- biometry-woof 4y agoThe irony here is that the linked Twitter account made his money by coordinating pump and dumps back in the day, before he rebranded into this entity.
- ZephyrBlu 4y agoCobie used to co-ordinate pump and dumps?
- DSingularity 4y agoEvery cryptocurrency personality leveraged their network effects to make millions. Go look at the founder of LTC tweeting moon moon while dumping LTC.
- alborzb 4y agoSorry I'm not familiar, I've been following this coinbase story for a while, but didn't know that Twitter user was in on it. Do you have any link or info to share?
- throw69420 4y ago...whilst also working for a UK Bank irl.
- zionic 4y agoWow, not that I would ever do anything like this… but if I was accused of such a thing the last thing I would do is book a flight for tomorrow.
- koolba 4y agoMuch better to drive across the border and then book a flight with a non-US airline.
- walrus01 4y agoHe 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 real advice on how to flee to avoid prosecution) also, a note, any airline flight that crosses US airspace submits its passenger manifest to US CBP/ICE/DHS electronically as a database transfer, this has been a thing for 20+ years as a result of 9/11 and the PATRIOT act.
- gerad 4y agoIsn'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?
- walrus01 4y agoideologically, yes, but I don't see any airlines that take payment in crypto for one-way rush last minute tickets to india
- derangedHorse 4y agoCrypto is good for recouping his funds once he's out of country and settled. Not super liquid when making last minute on-the-fly purchases though (at least not with the current level of adoption)
- perihelions 4y agoThere was an HN thread about that tweet, at the time that it was tweeted: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=31012462 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=31012462 ("Insider Trading at Coinbase (twitter.com/cobie)") (3 months ago, 333 comments)
- d--b 4y agoDuring which conversation a fairly large number of HN commenters thought that crypto insider trading wasn't illegal: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=31012837 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=31012837
- closewith 4y agoThat's a fantastic insight - thanks for the link.
- tyre 4y agoFor some nuance, though, partly this has to do with lack of SEC enforcement on crypto as a security. My opinion then would have been that this should be insider trading, crypto should be classified as a security, and also that I wasn’t sure the SEC would classify this as insider trading. Since the definition of insider trading is kind of, “whatever the SEC enforces”, it’s possible to believe that this is a security that was insider traded and also that it’s not “insider trading” in the only meaningful way (the SEC way.)
- game-of-throws 4y agoYeah I was about to say something similar. Our existing insider trading laws don't quite fit this situation, which is why they're being charged with "wire fraud conspiracy" instead of something more specific.
- deleted 4y ago[deleted]
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- SilasX 4y agoHaha, and the first reply to that tweet is complaining that the SEC is ignoring this while shackling another Coinbase venture. That didn't age well! https://twitter.com/ChainLinkGod/status/1513926481486909442 https://twitter.com/ChainLinkGod/status/1513926481486909442 Edit: Quoting in case it gets deleted: >>While the SEC was very swift in shutting down Coinbase Lend for DARING to provide 4% yield >>They’ll do absolutely nothing about this situation because they are a corrupt organization that wants to see the average American stay poor
- deleted 4y ago[deleted]
- paulpauper 4y agoit goes to show how the gov. takes this sort of crime seriously, contrary to the popular belief that the SEC is ignoring insider trading. if the pieces are there, they will take action.
- SilasX 4y agoTo my discredit, I was one of those people. I stand corrected.
- Thorrez 4y agoInteresting that it sounds like that tweeter thinks that Coinbase wants the SEC to go after this case. In reality Coinbase is upset that the SEC went after this (but fine that the DOJ went after it): https://blog.coinbase.com/coinbase-does-not-list-securities-end-of-story-e58dc873be79 https://blog.coinbase.com/coinbase-does-not-list-securities-...
- Mo3 4y agoHow did they manage to intercept him at the airport? Are there lists for suspected criminals?
- paulpauper 4y agooften the feds will surveil someone for a long time and just wait until they try to leave the country . it makes it much easier than trying to do the arrest elsewhere. it's all electronic . You buy a ticket, show your ID/passposrt, and your info will go out.
- acchow 4y agoSo you should really drive to central america, I guess?
- thehappypm 4y agoMy 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.
- Mo3 4y agoI 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 here in Europe, no one would let him with his Brazilian residency, and he had to resort to asking his wife for money. Another two days later, his lawyer told him to get lost because the Brazilian tax office knocked at his office door, he lost the preliminary court case to get his (to begin with, legal) money back, was stranded in Europe and they went to detain his wife. He couldn’t even open a cryptocurrency exchange account because not even they want to deal with the Brazilian authorities and the only ones operating in Brazil itself are on the governments leash. It's not lawless at all. He also told me they have a personal identification number like the US SSN, but that it's much more widely used for almost anything, even if you want to rent an apartment or go shopping (his words, never verified it) and allows authorities to track their every (mostly financial) step. He emphasised you better have that number ready when you enter the country too.
- paulpauper 4y agoIt'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.
- asveikau 4y agoI wonder if the request to show up at the Seattle office was some kind of working with law enforcement. Evidently he planned to flee to India instead of take the meeting. He seems to have known there was risk to him in that meeting.
- paulpauper 4y agoit 100% was set up
- londons_explore 4y agoCould well be he was tipped off about the purpose of the meeting... Most fully remote companies won't demand an in person meeting unless it's something of a disciplinary nature anyway. Merely a message saying "Your employer requires you to appear at X time at Y place" would be a red flag for many. The message would say "is it easier to discuss this next to a whiteboard?" If it were friendly...
- asveikau 4y agoWell it's never happened to me, but they say if you get a meeting invite from human resources at any point, it's clear what's going to happen. This was a meeting with a security team though?
- rglover 4y agoSo hire a Coyote into Mexico on foot. Got it. For my assigned agent: this is not an admission of guilt, just curiosity and information collection. Carry on.
- Sir_Liigmaz 4y agoMoral of the story: buy lotsa tickets when you try to skip town
- iso8859-1 4y agoWhat if they know whether you check in? It would be hard to check in at all the airports.