Court Trial Date For Mango Markets Exploiter Now Set In April

The court trial of Avraham Eisenberg, the hacker behind the $114 million exploit of the decentralized exchange Mango Markets, has been postponed to April 2024. 

In a court filing on November 2, US District Court Judge for the Southern District of New York Arun Subramanian granted Eisenberg’s motion for continuance after his lawyers argued that several factors had interfered with the defendant’s preparation for a trial. 

Related Reading: Mango Markets Exploiter, Avraham Eisenberg Wants To Keep Funds

The Multi-Million Dollar Mango Markets Exploit: Justice Delayed? 

In one of the biggest crypto hacks in 2022, the Mango Markets DEX was drained of approximately $114 million on October 11, 2022, by a hacker who exploited a vulnerability of the protocol smart contract.

The attacker, who was later revealed to be Avraham Eisenberg, opened two accounts on Mango Markets, funding both accounts with about $5 million worth of USDC each.

Thereafter, Eisenberg, using third-party exchanges, placed large orders for the Mango Markets native token MNGO, offering to buy this asset at an unusually high market price.

This action caused MNGO to experience a 10x price increase from about $0.04 to $0.50 on Mango Markets, as determined by a third-party oracle based on MNGO’s prices on these third-party exchanges.

The MNGO price inflation raised the value of the exploiter’s deposited collateral – already converted to MNGO – allowing the bad actor to obtain massive loans from the Mango Markets platform, which he quickly moved to other wallets on other platforms.

In December 2022, the US Department of Justice arrested Eisenberg in Puerto Rico on charges of fraud and market manipulation, as ordered by the US attorney of the Southern District of New York, Damian Williams. 

Now, the court trial, which was initially set for December 4, 2023, has been moved after Eisenberg’s lawyers claimed the US prosecutors had provided a “voluminous discovery”  on a “rolling basis” and will require sufficient time to analyze these documents.

While the plaintiff did oppose this claim, stating that a one-week continuance to December 11, 2023, at best, was sufficient for Eisenberg’s preparation, the judge eventually ruled in Favour of the defendants, moving the court hearing to April 8, 2024.

Both the US prosecutors and Eisenberg’s lawyers have been ordered to submit a revised schedule for pretreat motions and submissions by November 7, 2023. 

Eisenberg Faces Multiple Battles

Following the exploit, Mango Markets and Eisenberg entered into an agreement in which the hacker returned $67 million worth of the loot and would be allowed to retain the remaining $47 million. 

However, in a lawsuit in January 2023, Mango Markets filed charges against Eisenberg, claiming the supposed agreement was under duress, and now seeks to recover the remaining $47 million.

In addition, the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) as well as the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) have also filed individual lawsuits against Avraham Eisenberg, accusing the exploiter of MNGO market price manipulation. 

MNGO trading at $0.0188 on the 4-hour chart | Source: MNGOUSD chart on Tradingview.com

Featured image from Shuttershock, chart from Tradingview