US SEC joins FBI and CFTC in charging Mango Markets' exploiter, Avraham Eisenberg, with manipulating decentralized finance platform.
The United States Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), an independent agency of the United States federal government enforcing the laws against market manipulation, has charged Mango Markets' exploiter with orchestrating an attack on the decentralized finance (DeFi) platform, Mango Markets.
According to the press release shared on January 20th, in particular, SEC charges Mango Markets' exploiter, Avraham Eisenberg, with “violating anti-fraud and market manipulation provisions of the securities laws.”
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In the press release, SEC revealed that after being arrested in Puerto Rico, Eisenberg is awaiting transport to appear before the Southern District of New York court.
It is worth noting that the Department of Justice and the Commodities Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) have also brought criminal and civil charges against Avraham Eisenberg.
SEC claims that the Mango Markets exploiter manipulated DEX native token, MNGO, and stole around $116 million worth of crypto.
Chief of the Crypto Assets and Cyber Unit, David Hirsch, commented on the matter by stating:
As we allege, Eisenberg engaged in a manipulative and deceptive scheme to artificially inflate the price of the MNGO token, which was purchased and sold as a crypto asset security, in order to borrow and then withdraw nearly all available assets from Mango Markets <...>.
Avraham Eisenberg exploited Mango Markets at the beginning of October. After the exploit, the man used Mango’s governance proposal platform to launch a vote. In the vote, the malicious actor proposed to liquidate the DAO treasury aiming to repay $70 million of bad debts. Eventually, the Mango community declined the proposal.
With the charge, SEC seeks “permanent injunctive relief, a conduct-based injunction, disgorgement with prejudgment interest, and civil penalties.”
The SEC revealed that it collaborated with the US Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York, the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), and The Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) to bring charges against Avraham Eisenberg.
