SEC Charges Avraham Eisenberg for Stealing Cryptos Worth $116 M

• Avraham Eisenberg is charged with market manipulation of the MNGO token, Mango’s governance.
• Eisenberg was arrested in Puerto Rico in December and will now be deported to New York to face charges.
• In October 2022, he described the scheme as a “highly profitable trading strategy”.

The United States Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has charged Mango Markets manipulator Avraham Eisenberg for stealing crypto assets worth $116 Million. As per the press release, Eisenberg has allegedly been involved with committing fraud and market manipulating the MNGO token, Mango’s governance token that was offered and sold as a security.

Eisenberg, a U.S. citizen, was arrested in Puerto Rico in December and will now be deported to New York to face criminal and civil charges. In October 2022, he admitted his actions and described the scheme as a “highly profitable trading strategy” on Twitter. As a result, Mango Markets had temporarily been insolvent. He also defended the scheme in one of the podcasts.

David Hirsch, Chief of the Crypto Assets and Cyber Unit, has stated:

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, to borrow and then withdraw nearly all available assets from Mango Markets, which left the platform at a deficit when the security price returned to its pre-manipulation level.

The news has prompted several responses on Twitter, with many pointing out that SEC considers airdrops as sales.

The SEC received help from the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York, the FBI, and the CFTC. Eisenberg is charged with flouting anti-fraud regulations and market manipulation guidelines of securities laws.