Nathaniel Chastain was charged with wire fraud and money laundering for insider trading in Non-Fungible Tokens (NFTs).
Nathaniel Chastain, a former product manager at OpenSea, the world’s largest NFT platform, was charged with insider trading after allegedly exploiting private business information for personal gain.
According to a news release with the Department of Justice, Mr. Chastain utilized his access to private information to buy dozens of NFTs before they were featured on OpenSea’s homepage.
This indictment is a significant development for law enforcement. It is a pledge to take action against entrusted personnel who engage in illegal or inappropriate behavior in the blockchain area.
Because of his public ownership of CryptoPunk #3501, a Twitter user revealed purchases of highlighted NFTs linked to Chastain’s wallet in September, exposing the fraud.
Hey @opensea why does it appear @natechastain has a few secret wallets that appears to buy your front page drops before they are listed, then sells them shortly after the front-page-hype spike for profits, and then tumbles them back to his main wallet with his punk on it?
— 0xZuwu.eth 🧪 (@0xZuwu) September 14, 2021
