| Chastain
Indicted For Insider Trading OpenSea Non
Fungible Tokens Now NYCDL As Amicus
By Matthew
Russell Lee, Patreon Maxwell
Book
BBC-Guardian
UK - Honduras
- ESPN
NY
Mag
SDNY COURTHOUSE,
August 19 – Already there are
several civil Non-Fungible
Token cases in the U.S.
District Court for the
Southern District of New York.
On June 1, a
criminal case was unsealed,
charging NATHANIEL CHASTAIN, a
former product manager at
Ozone Networks, Inc. d/b/a
OpenSea (“OpenSea”), with wire
fraud and money laundering in
connection with a scheme to
commit insider trading in
Non-Fungible Tokens, or
“NFTs,” by using confidential
information about what NFTs
were going to be featured on
OpenSea’s homepage for his
personal financial gain.
CHASTAIN was arrested this
morning in New York, New York
and will be presented today in
the United States District
Court for the Southern
District of New
York."
When
he was
presented,
before U.S.
District Court
for the
Southern
District of
New York
Magistrate
Judge Barbara
C. Moses,
Chastain was
allowed to
leave after
signing a
$100,000 bond.
He can travel
throughout the
continental
US, but
urinanalysis
was ordered to
test for
drugs.
On June 15,
Chastain was arraigned before
Judge Jesse M. Furman.
Discovery includes three
phones; there was no post
arrest statement. But
Chastain's lawyer took the
opportunity to ask how it
could be insider trader if
NFTs are neither securities
nor commodities.
Judge
Furman set a schedule for a
motion to dismiss, to be
followed by separate motions
to suppress, if any, then a
conference then might include
oral argument on October 27 at
3:30. Judge Furman said he
rarely holds oral argument in
such circumstances but this
case might benefit from it.
On August 18,
Judge Furman granted the New
York Council of Defense
Lawyers the right to file an
amicus brief. NYCDL says the
prosecution's theory, if
accepted, would mark a
substantial expansion of
Federal fraud statutes. Judge
Furman ruled: "MEMO
ENDORSEMENT as to Nathaniel
Chastain re: For the foregoing
reasons, the NYCDL
respectfully requests that its
application to file an amicus
curiae brief in support of
defendants motion to dismiss,
on or before next Wednesday,
August 24, 2022, be
granted...ENDORSEMENT...
Application GRANTED. The
Government may move for an
extension of its deadline (and
the reply deadline) if, after
reviewing the amicus brief, it
requires more time. (Signed by
Judge Jesse M. Furman on
8/18/22)."
Inner City Press
will continue to cover these
cases.
The case is US v.
Chastain, 22-cr-305 (Furman /
Moses)
***
Your support means a lot. As little as $5 a
month helps keep us going and grants you
access to exclusive bonus material on our
Patreon page. Click
here to become a patron.
Feedback:
Editorial [at] innercitypress.com
SDNY Press Room 480, front cubicle
500 Pearl Street, NY NY 10007 USA
Mail: Box 20047, Dag
Hammarskjold Station NY NY 10017
Reporter's mobile (and weekends):
718-716-3540
Other, earlier Inner City Press are
listed here,
and some are available in the ProQuest
service, and now on Lexis-Nexis.
Copyright 2006-2022 Inner City
Press, Inc. To request reprint or other
permission, e-contact Editorial [at]
innercitypress.com
|
,
