NEW YORK – A former FTX executive who testified against the cryptocurrency company’s founder at his trial last year was spared a prison sentence Wednesday by a federal judge who blamed his substantial cooperation and late arrival on multimillion-dollar fraud.

Nishad Singh, the company’s former director of engineering, was sentenced in Manhattan by Judge Lewis A. Kaplan, who said his cooperation was “remarkable.”

The judge noted that Singh did not learn of the billions of dollars that were embezzled from the accounts of FTX clients and investors until two months before the fraud was revealed.

FTX was one of the most popular cryptocurrency exchanges in the world, with celebrity endorsements and a 2022 Super Bowl ad before going bankrupt in November 2022. A month later, FTX founder Sam Bankman-Frito He was extradited from the Bahamas, where his companies were based, to face trial.

Singh, 29, testified a year ago at Bankman-Fried’s trial and said he was “shocked and horrified” when he saw the extent of the fraud behind the once-notorious and seemingly pioneering firm.

Sentencing, Singh said he was “overwhelmed with remorse” for his role in the fraud.

“I strayed so far from my values ​​and words cannot express how sorry I am,” he said.

Bankman-Fried was convicted last November and is serving a 25-year sentence.

The sentencing came a month after Caroline Ellison, another key witness in Bankman-Fried’s trial and a former top executive at her cryptocurrency empire, was sentenced to two years in prison. At the time, Kaplan praised their cooperation, but said it wasn’t a get-out-of-jail-free card.

On Wednesday, Kaplan drew a distinction between Ellison’s cooperation and Singh’s work with prosecutors, saying Ellison had participated in the fraud “from the beginning” and had been aware of all the irregularities for years.

“She got a lot of credit for her cooperation, but you deserve more,” he told Singh.

Before Singh’s sentence was announced, defense attorney Andrew Goldstein urged that his client not be given prison time, saying that Singh did not know about the billions of dollars stolen from clients and investors until two months before FTX will collapse and fall into bankruptcy in November 2022, just weeks before the key crisis. The executives were arrested.

Goldstein, a former longtime Manhattan federal prosecutor, said the leniency would encourage future cooperators in other criminal cases to come forward.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Nicolas Roos credited Singh with providing information just weeks after the fraud was publicly revealed, saying it helped prosecutors learn about crimes they otherwise would never have uncovered, including his.

Roos said, for example, that Singh informed prosecutors about campaign finance violations that occurred when FTX executives made tens of millions of dollars in donations to political candidates.

The prosecutor also said Singh revealed private conversations with Bankman-Fried that strengthened the government’s case and allowed it to more quickly bring charges against several people.

Singh provided prosecutors with “documentary evidence that the government did not have and probably never would have had,” Roos said.