U.S. prosecutors will no longer re-investigate the OpenSea insider trading case and have reached a deferred prosecution agreement with former executive Chastain

BlockBeats News, January 23 — According to Cointelegraph, the U.S. Department of Justice will no longer re-examine the insider trading case against former manager Nathaniel Chastain of the non-fungible token (NFT) platform OpenSea. The Manhattan Federal Court received notification from the prosecution on Wednesday that a deferred prosecution agreement has been reached with Chastain, and the case will be dismissed in one month.

Previously, Chastain was convicted in 2023 of wire fraud and money laundering for using his position to purchase NFTs that were about to be featured on the OpenSea homepage and selling them for profit after their prices increased. However, the federal appeals court overturned the verdict in July this year, ruling that the jury was given incorrect instructions and that the data on the NFT homepage lacked commercial value and did not meet the property definition under federal wire fraud law.

Manhattan U.S. Attorney Jay Clayton stated that, considering Chastain has served three months in prison and agreed not to contest the forfeiture of 15.98 ETH valued at $47,330, the decision was made not to re-examine the case.