Wall Street Journal Quotes Ian McGinley on Prosecuting Crypto Crime
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For its article “NFT Case Promises to Test Boundaries of Insider-Trading Laws,” The Wall Street Journal quoted Akin Gump white collar defense and government investigations partner Ian McGinley.
The article discusses how federal prosecutors in trying cases in emerging technologies, such as non-fungible tokens, or NFTs, will test using fraud theories normally used in capital markets cases.
McGinley, a former Assistant U.S. Attorney in the Southern District of New York, where he was Co-Chief of the Complex Frauds and Cybercrime Unit and a member of the Securities and Commodities Fraud Task Force, said that prosecutors enjoy considerable leeway in employing the fraud statute: “It’s a good thing for prosecutors to have flexibility to confront new technologies because at the end of the day, fraud is fraud.”
On the topic of the ongoing prosecution of a former employee of an NFT trader for insider trading in NFTs, McGinley said that the case against him could depend on whether his former employer considered the listings on its front page commercially valuable, adding, “The question will be where to limit enforcement because not every misuse of information is a crime.”