Mango Markets Exploiter Avi Eisenberg Committed Fraud, Feds Say

Mango Markets attacker Avraham “Avi” Eisenberg has been charged with commodities fraud and market manipulation by US prosecutors from the Southern District of New York.

The complaint, which was made public on Tuesday, said Eisenberg willfully and knowingly attempted to manipulate and defraud markets, enabling him to withdraw $110 million worth of multiple cryptocurrencies with no intentions of returning the stolen assets.

During the attack in October 2022, Eisenberg drained $110 million from the Mango Markets exchange, which the US Federal Prosecutor is now taking exception with due to the allegation that he manipulated the price of a commodity by taking both sides of the transaction.

At the time, Ian Corp, an attorney at the Agentis law firm, told Blockworks that “it’s possible that the SEC and/or CFTC bring civil charges against them, but they would have to also prove that the Mango token was either a security or commodity.” In the complaint, the Assistant US Attorney states that “Perpetuals are ‘swaps'” under the Commodity Exchange Act.

Eisenberg riled some observers when he declared his move “a highly profitable trading strategy” in a tweet at the time.

Avraham Eisenberg did not immediately return a request for comment.

This is a developing story and will be updated.