The US Department of Justice (DOJ) has charged Nate Chastain, a former OpenSea executive with wire fraud and money laundering involving NFTs with the DOJ saying that it was the first-ever insider trading charge involving digital assets. Former employee of NFT marketplace charged in first ever digital asset insider trading schemehttps://t.co/Q8C8btS743 — US Attorney SDNY (@SDNYnews) June 1, 2022 Arrest Made in OpenSea Insider Trading The FBI and Department of Justice arrested and charged Nate Chastain, a former OpenSea product manager, with wire fraud and money laundering for alleged trades he made using insider knowledge. Each charge carries a maximum sentence of 20 years in prison. As part of Chastain’s role as product manager, he was responsible for selecting which NFTs would be featured on OpenSea’s home page. The DOJ alleges that when those NFTs were featured on the site, their prices would rise. He would then sell them for two to five times his initial purchase price and used anonymous accounts and crypto wallets to conceal the transactions, according to the investigators. U.S. attorney Damian Williams said in the press release, “NFTs might be new, but this type of criminal scheme is not. As alleged, Nathaniel Chastain betrayed OpenSea by using its confidential business information to make money for himself. Today’s charges demonstrate the commitment of this office to stamping out insider trading, whether it occurs on the...
