Benzinga - Avraham Eisenberg, a trader involved in a staggering $110 million cryptocurrency theft, will stand trial in a New York court on Dec. 4.
U.S. District Judge Richard Berman in Manhattan announced the trial date for Eisenberg, who faces charges including commodities fraud, commodities manipulation and wire fraud, Bloomberg reported.
The indictment was issued on Jan. 9, and Eisenberg has pleaded not guilty to the charges.
The prosecutors alleged that on Oct. 11, 2022, Eisenberg indulged in manipulating futures contracts on the Mango Markets cryptocurrency exchange.
He is accused of artificially inflating the price of swaps by 1,300%, which he then allegedly utilized to extract around $110 million worth of cryptocurrency from other depositors on Mango Markets. This all happened within 20 minutes.
In a surprising turn of events, Eisenberg took to Twitter four days after the alleged incident, stating, “I was involved with a team that operated a highly profitable trading strategy last week.”
He further expressed his belief that “all of our actions were legal open market actions, using the protocol as designed.”
Mango Labs LLC, in a separate civil lawsuit, contends that Eisenberg deceitfully acquired $114 million, and then pressured members of the Mango Decentralized Autonomous Organization (DAO) to permit him to return only $67 million of the stolen funds.
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This allegedly left Eisenberg in possession of $47 million, a move that Mango Labs asserts is illegal.
The civil lawsuit is temporarily paused while the criminal case proceeds.
The indictment outlines the prosecutors' stance that Eisenberg “had no intention of repaying the borrowed funds but rather to steal those funds.”
Further complicating the case is Eisenberg’s international travel following the alleged scam. According to an FBI affidavit, he flew to Israel the day after the incident.
Eisenberg, who is originally from Suffern, New York, then traveled to Puerto Rico, where he had been residing and was apprehended on Dec. 26.
Currently, Eisenberg is being held at the Essex County Jail in Newark, New Jersey, and participated in a recent court hearing via video conference.
The consequences of the wire fraud charge alone could result in up to 20 years of imprisonment for Eisenberg. Moreover, he is facing legal action from the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission and the Commodity Futures Trading Commission.
The criminal case registered as U.S. v. Eisenberg, 23-cr-10, is being held in the US District Court, Southern District of New York (Manhattan).
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