CFTC sues Avraham Eisenberg for Mango market manipulation

A self-described digital artist by the name of Avraham Eisenberg was charged with two counts of market manipulation in connection with an exploit of a decentralized finance platform known as Mango Markets on January 9, 2019, when the United States Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) filed a lawsuit against him. The lawsuit was filed on January 9, 2019.

After being detained on December 27 on suspicion of involvement in the investigation-related crimes, Eisenberg was transported to jail that day.

The Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) has filed a lawsuit against Eisenberg, alleging that he participated in a fraudulent and deceptive scheme to artificially inflate the price of swaps made available by Mango Markets, which ultimately led to the theft of more than one hundred million dollars from the platform in October. The suit alleges that Eisenberg artificially inflated the price of swaps made available by Mango Markets.

Eisenberg made a transaction on Mango Markets that amounted to more than 400 million MNGO-USDC Swaps with a position size of around $19 million. After that, Eisenberg made substantial purchases of Mango's MNGO token on the three exchanges that serve as oracles for Mango.

As a consequence of this, the price of MNGO went up, and Eisenberg borrowed digital assets from Mango Markets with a total value of around 144 million dollars at the new, higher price.

The price of MNGO fell, causing Mango Markets to be left without any liquid assets.

Eisenberg stated in a tweet that was sent on October 15 that he was the one who took advantage of the Mango Markets system, but he insisted that what he did was not illegal and that it was within his rights to do so.

After Eisenberg had earlier filed a covert request for a bug bounty for 70 million USD Coin, which is equivalent to $70 million, this event took place as a result of it.

Members of the Mango Markets community came to the conclusion that it would be in everyone's best interest to withdraw all criminal proceedings against him and instead let him keep $47 million.

On the other hand, Eisenberg was seized on December 27 by the United States Department of Justice, which then proceeded to charge him with one count of commodities fraud and one count of commodities manipulation.

The Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) asserts that the individual in question violated a number of commission policies in addition to the Commodities Exchange Act.