In October 2022, a Manhattan jury found cryptocurrency trader Avraham "Avi" Eisenberg guilty of masterminding a $110 million fraud operation that was directed towards Mango Markets, a decentralized finance (DeFi) system.
Prosecutors claim that Eisenberg, using a fictitious identity, participated in market manipulation to raise the value of Mango's token, MNGO, and associated contracts. In the end, he took advantage of an exchange feature to extract $110 million in cryptocurrencies with no intention of paying back the money.
Exposure of Avi Eisenberg's Manipulation Scheme
Prosecutors testified throughout the trial that Eisenberg had manipulated MNGO token prices in order to trick the system and obtain money that wasn't authorized. Eisenberg reportedly intended to commit a willful fraud on Mango Markets by "artificially inflating" the token's value.
Stressing Eisenberg's intention to "take the money and run," Assistant US Attorney Thomas Burnett claimed that Eisenberg had carefully planned and carried out the scam.
Not long after he made a sizable fortune, Eisenberg left Puerto Rico, where he was living, and fled to Israel. But on December 26, 2022, after his return to Puerto Rico, he was taken into custody by US officials. Since then, Eisenberg has stayed in detention because, prior to his trial, a court determined that he posed a flight risk.
Witness clash in the fraud trial at Mango Markets
In the course of the trial, Brian Klein, Eisenberg's defense lawyer, contended that his client had carried out a legitimate trading plan in compliance with the exchange regulations.
Klein said that Eisenberg had operated within the parameters set forth by the smart contracts that controlled the decentralized financing network. He also brought attention to the platform's disclaimer, which advised users of the risks involved and the unaudited nature of the software.
In response, Assistant US Attorney Thomas Burnett refuted the defense's claim, claiming that Eisenberg was still subject to prosecution for fraud and manipulation despite the Mango Markets platform's regulations.
Although Eisenberg refrained from testifying throughout the trial, he actively participated in his defense by taking notes during the witnesses' evidence and regularly proposing questions to his lawyers to pose to them.
Since Eisenberg's conviction, the MNGO token has seen a significant increase in value, rising to $0.029. This is an impressive growth of 11.5% in just the last day.
On longer timescales, MNGO has shown notable returns of 69% and 46% over the last 14 and 30 days, respectively, in contrast to the performance of the cryptocurrency market as a whole. These numbers show that following the Mango Markets protocol exploit, there is now more interest in the token.
The MNGO token is still well below its all-time high of $0.49, which was reached in September 2021, even with these recent advances.
April 2024, Cryptoniteuae