Prosecutors want to claim NFTs as securities, alleges legal team of former OpenSea employee
2022.08.23 09:42
Prosecutors want to claim NFTs as securities, alleges legal team of former OpenSea employee
Lawyers representing Nathaniel Chastain, the former OpenSea product manager accused of insider trading, have claimed United States authorities only filed charges in an attempt to set a legal precedent that nonfungible tokens (NFTs) are securities.
In a Friday filing with the Southern District of New York court, Chastain’s legal team from Greenberg Traurig filed a motion to dismiss the indictment against him, which included allegations of wire fraud and money laundering related to an NFT insider trading scheme from June to September 2021. The lawyers argued that the charges against the former OpenSea employee were invalid in part “because the NFTs at issue are neither securities nor commodities” and the tokens were not legally considered the platform’s property.
