The U.S. Department of Justice will no longer retry Nathaniel Chastain, former manager of the non-fungible token platform OpenSea. The Manhattan federal court received notice that prosecutors had reached a deferred prosecution agreement with Chastain and will dismiss the case one month later.
Chastain was convicted in 2023 of wire fraud and money laundering for using his position to purchase NFTs ahead of their featured placement on OpenSea’s homepage, then selling them for profit after their prices rose. However, a federal appeals court overturned the conviction in July this year, ruling that the jury had received improper instructions and that data regarding OpenSea’s homepage placements lacked commercial value, and thus did not meet the definition of ‘property’ under the federal wire fraud statute.
Manhattan U.S. Attorney Jay Clayton stated that, considering Chastain has already served three months in prison and agreed not to contest the forfeiture of 15.98 ether valued at $47,330, prosecutors have decided not to pursue a retrial. The case will be dismissed under the deferred prosecution agreement.
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