NEW YORK – Aug. 14, 2025 – Greenberg Traurig, LLP Global Litigation Practice attorneys and appellate co-counsel Shapiro Arato Bach LLP won a landmark reversal in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit for Greenberg Traurig trial client Nathaniel Chastain. Chastain, a former senior manager at OpenSea, a non-fungible token (NFT) trading platform, was charged by the government and convicted of wire fraud and money laundering in U.S. v. Nathaniel Chastain. On July 31, the Circuit Court vacated that conviction.
Greenberg Traurig litigation Shareholders David I. Miller and Daniel P. Filor defended Chastain at trial in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York in 2023. The arguments they raised in their dismissal and pretrial motions, and in challenges to jury instructions, were the basis for the successful appeal.
The indictment and trial received substantial media attention and involved novel legal theories regarding NFTs, insider trading, wire fraud/property, and money laundering. In announcing the charges, the U.S. Attorney’s Office described the case as the “first-ever” insider trading prosecution involving digital assets.
The case centered on whether the defendant’s use of information regarding which NFTs would be featured on the online trading platform violated company policy even though the prosecution could show no harm to the company (or to any third party). A key part of the Second Circuit’s ruling, which is precedential for future wire fraud and insider trading-related prosecutions, states: “We agree with Chastain that confidential business information must have commercial value to a company to qualify as its property under the wire fraud statute.”
“As we argued at the District Court, the charges sought to convert an employment matter into criminal fraud,” Miller and Filor said in a joint statement. “We are grateful for the Second Circuit’s decision, which rightly vindicates Nate.”
In addition to Miller and Filor, Greenberg Traurig Associates Nicholas T. Barnes, Charles J. Berk, and Brooke A. Kaufman worked on the matter. Greenberg Traurig New York Co-Chairman Edward C. Wallace is Chastain’s original Greenberg Traurig lawyer.