Robinhood Engineers Charged with Insider Trading in Crypto Listings

The U.S. Department of Justice (DoJ) has charged two Robinhood engineers with insider trading related to crypto listings on the platform.

According to a statement from Jamie McDonald, the U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York (SDNY), the accused made over $50K each by trading confidential information.

Misappropriating confidential information to trade in derivatives markets for personal benefit is illegal, McDonald said.

The two engineers, Hefu Chai and Huaisong Xiang, were charged with commodities and wire fraud for front-running crypto tokens that were to be listed on Robinhood Crypto.