Thanks to cooperation, former FTX executive avoids prison time even though Guidelines recommended LWOP

As reported in this CNBC article, "[f]ormer FTX executive Nishad Singh was sentenced to time served and three years of supervised release on Wednesday, becoming the fourth ex-employee of the collapsed crypto exchange to be punished. Singh was also ordered to forfeit $11 billion."  Here is more:

Singh faced a maximum sentence of 75 years but New York Judge Lewis Kaplan noted his cooperation with the government as “remarkable” and said he was entirely persuaded that Singh’s involvement with the fraud was far more limited than that of FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried or Caroline Ellison, the former CEO of sister hedge fund Alameda Research.

Ellison was the star witness in the prosecution of Bankman-Fried and recently received a two-year prison sentence.

Singh, who was FTX’s head of engineering, pleaded guilty early last year to six criminal charges, including conspiracy to commit securities fraud, conspiracy to commit money laundering and conspiracy to violate campaign finance laws.

On Wednesday, Singh delivered a statement to the Court and said in a soft voice that he had strayed from his values and didn’t expect forgiveness. He said that assisting in the government’s investigation gave him purpose....

FTX spiraled into bankruptcy in Nov. 2022, after the crypto exchange couldn’t meet customers’ withdrawal demands and allegedly stole $8 billion in client funds. In March, Bankman-Fried was sentenced to 25 years in prison and ordered to pay $11 billion....

Prosecutors noted that they met with Singh on at least 24 occasions for multiple hours and that he demonstrated “earnest remorse and eagerness to assist,” as well as “brought to the Government’s attention criminal conduct that the Government was not aware of and, in some cases, may have never discovered but for Singh’s cooperation.”

Nicolas Roos, one of the prosecutors in the trial, noted that the campaign finance scheme was “totally unknown” by the government and that Singh “exclusively brought” details of the arrangement to the government....  Roos told Judge Kaplan that leniency “would send an important message.” In Kaplan’s reading of the sentencing, he told the defendant, “You did the right thing.”

Notably, this report on Singh's sentencing makes no mention of his recommended federal sentencing guideline range, no doubt because nobody gave it any mind.  But, as this government sentencing filing noted, for Singh, the "Probation Office calculate[d] the otherwise applicable Guidelines sentence to be life imprisonment, based on an offense level of 43" because of the amount of money involved in the FTX frauds.  Even for someone with no criminal history, that offense level means a recommended guideline sentence of life in prison (and the federal system has no parole).  To move from a recommendation of life in prison without parole to an actual sentence without any prison time is the sentencing magic that cooperating with the government can conjure for some.   

A few prior related posts:

• Lawyers for Sam Bankman-Fried in lengthy memo request "a sentence that returns Sam promptly to a productive role in society"
• Feds argue in sentencing memo that "legitimate purposes of punishment require a sentence of 40 to 50 years’ imprisonment" for Sam Bankman-Fried
• Sam Bankman-Fried sentenced to 25 years in federal prison for his FTX frauds
• For executive connected to FTX collapse (and Sam Bankman-Fried's girlfriend), federal guidelines call for LWOP, but probation office recommends time served
• Feds praise Caroline Ellison's cooperation while refusing to suggest any specific sentence when federal guidelines recommend LWOP
• Caroline Ellison sentenced to two years in prison for her role in FTX collapse