On Wednesday Former OpenSea Head of Product Nate Chastain was arrested and charged “with fraud and money laundering in connection with a scheme linked to insider trading on the platform,” He was first accused of insider trading in September and was fired from his position. but this indictment marks the first criminal charges associated with the scheme.
While at OpenSea, Chastain was responsible for selecting tokens featured on OpenSea and he was charged with purchasing NFTs shortly before they were featured on OpenSea’s homepage and selling them for between two and five times the purchase price. He operated by using anonymous accounts on OpenSea and anonymous cryptocurrency wallets all in a bid to cover his tracks.
He was eventually found out by crypto sleuths who called out the company and they responded by launching an investigation, then requesting and accepting Chastain’s resignation.
The US Attorney for the Southern District of New York Damian Williams said in a statement “NFTs might be new, but this type of criminal scheme is not,” and further affirmed the commitment of the body to stamping out insider trading whether it occurs on the stock market or the blockchain.
Chastain will be required to forfeit any money that can be traced to the proceeds of the scheme as part of the indictment.
Featured image source: TechCrunch
