US to Begin Avi Eisenberg’s Trial

The trial for Avraham Eisenberg’s criminal charges of fraud and manipulation is set to begin on Tuesday in a New York federal court. The case will focus on Eisenberg’s alleged fraudulent activities involving the Solana-based DeFi exchange, Mango Markets, which resulted in a loss of $116 million.

It is expected to take two weeks to complete. Originally set for December 4, 2023, the trial was delayed at the request of Eisenberg’s defense team.

Although Eisenberg has admitted to orchestrating the attack on Mango Markets in October 2022, he has claimed that it was a legitimate trading strategy that took advantage of the protocol’s design.

This strategy involved manipulating the price oracle to increase the value of the platform’s native token, Mango, and using these inflated tokens as collateral to secure about $116 million in cryptocurrency loans.

This ultimately led to the platform becoming insolvent. Eisenberg has since reached an agreement with the Mango DAO to return $67 million of the stolen funds.