The United States District Court for the District of Puerto Rico has denied alleged Mango Markets exploiter Avraham Eisenberg bail, citing public safety concerns.
In a Jan. 4, 2023 ruling, Judge Bruce J. McGiverin said that Avraham must await trial in a Puerto-Rican jail because of his significant non-U.S. ties, murky background, and the nature of his past offenses and present charges.
Eisenberg Deemed a Flight Risk
According to the ruling, Eisenberg’s existing charges and a relatively recent conviction for a pre-trial crime threaten public safety. Additionally, his foreign ties and substantial means make him a flight risk.
Eisenberg was arrested in Dec. 2022 after The U.S. Department of Justice charged him with stealing $110 million from decentralized exchange Mango Markets in Oct. 2022. Avraham allegedly artificially inflated the price of Mango perpetual swaps by 1300%. He then used the value of these swaps to borrow and withdraw $110 million, draining customer deposits from the DEX’s liquidity pool.
At the time, Avraham claimed he was innocent of wrongdoing, alleging that he legally exploited a loophole in the DEX’s code to walk away with over $100 million. Others disagreed.
Eisenberg received a $47 million bounty after settling with Mango Markets.
Mango Markets Exploiter Less Lucky Than SBF
Social media claims that Eisenberg’s treatment was unfair when his crime is arguably less egregious than that of disgraced FTX boss Sam Bankman-Fried.
Pseudonymous Twitter user Nick bax.eth of blockchain intelligence firm Convex labs said that like Bankman-Fried, Eisenberg should be released on bail.
Reddit user Every_Hunt_160 said in response to a thread about the detention ruling, “So the Mango Markets exploiter is a flight risk but SBF who stole billions from hundreds of thousands of innocent customers wasn’t classified as one and was granted bail. Right..”
After his recent arrest, former FTX CEO Bankman-Fried was released on a $250 million bond to await trial at his parents’ home in Palo Alto.
According to Assistant U.S. Attorney Nicolas Roos, the court agreed to grant Bankman-Fried bail because he consented to extradition from the Bahamas. Additionally, the judge ruled that he was not a flight risk.
“It will be very difficult for this defendant to hide without being recognized,” Judge Gabriel Grenstein ruled.
Bahamian authorities had arrested Bankman-Fried after the U.S. Department of Justice charged the former CEO with conspiracy to commit commodities fraud, securities fraud, money laundering, and wire fraud on customers and lenders. Bankman-Fried is also accused of committing wire fraud on lenders and customers and violating U.S. campaign finance laws.
He has pleaded not guilty to the charges. U.S. District Judge Lewis Kaplan has set a trial date of Oct. 2, 2022.
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