U.S. officials arrest and charge Mango attacker

U.S. officials have filed criminal charges against Avraham Eisenberg, who exploited the DeFi platform Mango Markets earlier this year.

Damian Williams, U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York, said in a Dec. 27 court filing that Eisenberg was arrested on Monday in Puerto Rico.

William’s filing also ordered the unsealing of an earlier complaint dated Dec. 23. In that complaint, FBI agent Brandon Racz described how Eisenberg participated in a scheme in which he intentionally and artificially manipulated perpetual futures contracts on Mango Markets to steal approximately $110 million around Oct. 11.

Racz’s account of the scheme broadly says that Eisenberg used two accounts to inflate the price of MNGO Perpetuals relative to the USDC stablecoin. Eisenberg also borrowed, swapped, and withdrew various assets in order to profit from the scheme.

Eisenberg has been known as the perpetrator of the Mango attack since Oct. 15, when he publicly admitted to carrying out said attack as part of a group. Eisenberg insisted at that time that his actions constituted a legal trading strategy.

Around the time of that admission, Eisenberg returned $67 million to Mango’s DAO after entering negotiations with Mango Markets. The DeFi platform said that it would not pursue criminal investigations, though its promise apparently did not prevent U.S. law enforcement from prosecuting Eisenberg this week.

Today’s filing also notes that Eisenberg traveled from the U.S. to Israel around Oct. 12. Racz suggests that Eisenberg’s departure was an attempt to avoid arrest.

Eisenberg has also pursued other questionable schemes including the launch of his own meme coin and a failed attack on the Aave lending platform.