Ex-head of NFT department of OpenSea platform to be tried in the US

The U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) has charged Nathaniel Chastain, a former employee of the non-fungible token (NFT) trading platform OpenSea, with wire fraud and money laundering by using the platform’s confidential information.

According to the Ministry, Chastain knew in advance about the appearance of tokens on the OpenSea home page, buying them before publication, and then selling them several times more expensive, using several anonymous wallets and accounts. The fraudster collected the proceeds from these transactions on his personal cryptocurrency wallet.

Prosecutor Damian Williams commented on the charges: «NFTs may be new, but this type of criminal scheme is not. Nathaniel Chastain betrayed OpenSea by using its confidential information to make money for himself. Today’s indictments demonstrate the quality of law enforcement and financial regulatory agencies' work — whether the crime is in the stock market or on the blockchain.»

Chastain faces up to 20 years in prison on each count. It is interesting to note that it was the community that discovered Chastain’s antics last September as a result of a collective investigation. These accusations became the basis for the work of the investigation team.

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