Avraham Eisenberg, the crypto trader whose “highly financially rewarding investing strategy” drained DeFi trading platform Mango Marketplaces of crypto truly worth $110 million, was arrested Monday in Puerto Rico, court files reported.
The self-explained game theorist admitted his purpose in draining Mango Markets’ treasury soon right after the incident in mid-Oct, and could now be the very first U.S. resident to encounter charges for his role in manipulating a decentralized-finance trading platform.
Eisenberg faces rates of commodities fraud and commodities manipulation, according to a filing unsealed Tuesday. The costs could see punishments ranging from fines to jail time.
A deposition signed by FBI Distinctive Agent Brandon Racz alleges Eisenberg “willfully and knowingly” manipulated the sale of a commodity – namely futures contracts on Mango Markets.
“Eisenberg engaged in a scheme involving the intentional and artificial manipulation of the price of perpetual futures contracts on a cryptocurrency exchange called Mango Marketplaces, and other manipulative and misleading equipment and contrivances.”
Read through more: $114M Mango Markets Exploiter Outs Himself, Returns Most of the Revenue
Eisenberg was arrested Monday evening in Puerto Rico, according to a next submitting signed by Assistant U.S. Legal professional Thomas Burnett.
According to the unsealed grievance, Eisenberg manipulated the selling price of perpetuals contracts (a form of futures deal well known in crypto marketplaces) for Mango Markets’ native token MNGO. He sold huge quantities of MNGO perpetuals contracts to himself, so pumping the selling price of those contracts 1,300% in a lot less than an hour.
Up large time, Eisenberg then borrowed against the benefit of his place and “withdrew in essence all of the cryptocurrency deposits on the Mango Marketplaces system.” He designed $110 million, in accordance to the grievance.
The system grew to become “insolvent” as a final result, the deposition mentioned, quoting Eisenberg’s own Twitter account.
In the wake of the trade, Eisenberg negotiated with Mango Marketplaces and agreed to return $67 million to the decentralized autonomous firm (DAO) governing it. Mango DAO prepared to return those funds to buyers who have been influenced by Eisenberg’s attack.
News of Eisenberg’s arrest sparked celebratory memes on Mango Markets’ Discord server.