Sam Bankman-Fried's former colleague Nishad Singh takes stand at fraud trial

Sam Bankman-Fried’s former colleague and fellow political donor Nishad Singh took the witness stand on Monday at the 31-year-old former billionaire’s fraud trial.

Sam Bankman-Fried's former colleague and fellow political donor Nishad Singh took the witness stand on Monday at the 31-year-old former billionaire's fraud trial, becoming the third former member of his inner circle to testify against him.

Singh, the former director of engineering at now-bankrupt cryptocurrency exchange FTX, pleaded guilty in February to wire fraud and conspiring to violate U.S. campaign finance laws. His lawyers, Andrew Goldstein and Russell Capone, said at the time he would assist the government "to the best of his ability." In pleading guilty, Singh said in court that Bankman-Fried,

FTX's founder and chief executive officer, directed him to provide misleading financial information to auditors to make it appear as if the company's revenues were higher than they actually were.

He also said he was aware that Alameda Research, Bankman-Fried's crypto-focused hedge fund, was borrowing money from FTX customers without their knowledge, and that he made political donations in his name using Alameda funds.

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"I understood that the donations were in part for the benefit of Sam Bankman-Fried and FTX and their ability to be politically influential," Singh said at the time.

Prosecutors say Bankman-Fried looted billions of dollars from FTX customers to prop up Alameda, buy real estate, and donate more than $100 million to U.S. political campaigns to try to promote crypto-friendly legislation.