A former employee of OpenSea, the largest marketplace for the purchase and sale of non-fungible tokens (NFTs), has been indicted and charged with wire fraud and money laundering allegedly in connection with actions he took while employed by OpenSea. NTFs bought and sold on the OpenSea platform mostly consist of digital assets that represent the ownership interest in a piece of digitally generated and displayed works of art. The full ten-page indictment is available here. While not charged with actual insider trading under Securities Exchange Act Rule 10b-5 or other applicable securities laws, in a press release the Department of Justice (DOJ) has framed this to be the first ever “digital asset insider trading scheme” to be prosecuted in the United States.
Nathaniel Chastain (“Chastain”) was arrested on June 1, 2022 and released on $100,000 bond after entering a plea of “not guilty” in federal court. According to the indictment, in September of 2021, Chastain resigned from his position as product manager at OpenSea after it was revealed he was purchasing NFTs based on confidential information about the identities of artists and collections that would be placed on OpenSea’s front page. The placement of art on OpenSea’s front page is alleged to be relevant to its price since highlighted projects and artists often enjoy a price bump while featured more prominently on OpeaSea’s website. The DOJ indictment is based on Chastain’s alleged breaches of the fiduciary duties he owed...
FRESNO, Calif. (FOX26) — The Big Fresno Fair released a statement regarding false information about ICE activity at the fair on Sunday. The Big Fresno Fair addressed false information circulating ...