Former OpenSea manager wins appeal in NFT insider trading case after five years
Main Idea
Former OpenSea manager Nathaniel Chastain won his appeal in an NFT insider trading case after the court ruled the jury was improperly instructed, potentially overturning his conviction.
Key Points
1. The Second Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that the jury in Nathaniel Chastain's trial received improper instructions, which may invalidate his conviction.
2. Chastain was accused of using insider information to buy NFTs he knew would be featured on OpenSea's homepage, later selling them for a profit of around $57,000.
3. The defense argued that the information Chastain used did not constitute legal property and that OpenSea itself profited from the transactions.
4. Chastain was initially convicted in May 2023 and sentenced to three months in prison, but his legal team pursued an appeal, calling the conviction a 'miscarriage of justice.'
5. The case originated in 2021 during the NFT boom, with Chastain's activities first being flagged by a Twitter user who noticed suspicious wallet activity.
Description
After being convicted in the first-ever NFT insider trading case, former OpenSea product manager Nathaniel Chastain found new hope this week as a US federal appeals court overturned his conviction. In a decision handed down Thursday, the Second Circuit Court of Appeals in Manhattan ruled that the jury in Chastain’s 2023 trial may have been misled by flawed instructions, potentially convicting him for unethical behavior rather than a clear-cut violation of federal fraud law. However, on Thursday,...
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