Nishad Singh, once the chief engineer at collapsed crypto exchange FTX and a key deputy to co-founder and former CEO Sam Bankman-Fried, avoided a lengthy prison stay Wednesday when he was sentenced to time served and three years of supervised release by a federal judge. He is now a free man.

Singh had been a key witness against Bankman-Fried, who was sentenced to 25 years in prison for several fraud charges, and was also a key ally in helping recover funds and assets in bankruptcy proceedings. Late Tuesday, current FTX CEO John J. Ray Jr., a storied bankruptcy executive, urged leniency in a letter to the court citing a further need for Singh's help.

"You did the right thing, quickly," Judge Lewis Kaplan told Singh in court Wednesday, according to reporting by Matthew Russell Lee for Inner City Press. "Your cooperation has been remarkable. You are a very important cooperator. It has contributed to an appropriate outcome all around. Caroline Ellison got credit, but you deserve more."

Ellison, once the CEO of FTX's sister firm Alameda Research, was sentenced to two years in prison in September. She had also cooperated in the case against Bankman-Fried.

Editor's note: This story is breaking and will be updated with additional details.