Eisenberg is the first US resident facing charges for manipulating the DeFi trading platform.
Mango Markets' exploiter Avraham Eisenberg was arrested on December 26th in Puerto Rico.
According to the complaint filed with the Southern District of New York, the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) is charging Eisenberg with commodities fraud and commodities manipulation. If the man is found guilty, he can be punished with imprisonment or a fine.
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It is worth noting that Eisenberg will be the first US resident facing charges for his role in manipulating the decentralized finance (DeFi) trading platforms.
In the complaint, FBI Special Agent Brandon Racz claims that Eisenberg “willfully and knowingly” performed “intentional and artificial manipulation” of Mango Markets' perpetual futures.
Eisenberg engaged in a scheme involving the intentional and artificial manipulation of the price of perpetual futures contracts on a cryptocurrency exchange called Mango Markets, and other manipulative and deceptive devices and contrivances.
On October 11th, Eisenberg and a group of hackers exploited decentralized exchange (DEX) Mango Markets by manipulating the price of the platform’s native token, MNGO. Malicious actors inflated coins price and then took out “massive loans” draining DEX’s treasury of $110 million worth of crypto.
On October 12th, Mango Markets started negotiating with Avraham Eisenberg, asking the hacker to return at least a part of the funds.
Finally, on October 15th, Mango Markets revealed that around $67 million in various digital assets were returned by malicious actors. On the same day, Eisenberg shared a tweet noting that he was involved in “a highly profitable trading strategy” which, according to him, included “legal open market actions.”
However, the FBI believes that Eisenberg was fully aware that his actions were illegal. The obtained records showed that the man left the United States the day after the Mango Markets exploit. At that time, Eisenberg relocated to Israel.
Based on the timing of the flight, the travel appears to have been an effort to avoid apprehension by law enforcement in the immediate aftermath of the Market Manipulation Scheme.
At the time of writing, there is no information about when Avraham Eisenberg will appear in court.
