Jason Gottlieb, a crypto attorney and partner at Morrison Cohen, discusses the insider trading case being built by the US Department of Justice against former OpenSea employee Nathaniel Chastain. Show topics:
- why Nathaniel is being charged with wire fraud and money laundering instead of insider trading
- what makes NFT insider trading different from usual insider trading indictments
- why an employee’s “duty of confidentiality” can be important when building an insider trading case
- whether the money laundering charge makes sense
- whether moving money between self-custodied wallets constitutes money laundering
- why Jason does not think this particular case will have widespread implications for the NFT and crypto space
- Jason’s advice for employees at crypto exchanges and companies who may be tempted to trade on private information
- what happens next in the Chastain case
- why the potential sentences are so long – 20 years for each charge
- how likely it is that Chastain has to serve jail time
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Episode Links
Jason Gottlieb
- Website: https://www.morrisoncohen.com/jgottlieb
- Twitter: https://twitter.com/ohaiom
Department of Justice Press Release
Nathaniel Chastain
- Arrest
- Resignation
- Insider trading allegations
Insider Trading and Crypto
- https://www.morrisoncohen.com/siteFiles/files/Insider%20Trading%20and%20Cryptocurrency%20-%20A%20Primer%20for%20Traders.pdf
- https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=132529