Mango Crypto Attacker Arrested in Puerto Rico

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Avraham Eisenberg, who openly confirmed his Mango Markets (MNGO/USD) cryptocurrency platform exploit in October, has been arrested in Puerto Rico.

According to details of a complaint filed by U.S. Attorney Damian Williams in the Southern District of New York, Eisenberg was arrested Monday in Puerto Rico. The US Department of Justice disclosed the arrest on Tuesday, December 27 in a sealed complaint filed with US District Court Judge Kathrine H. Parker of the Southern District of New York.

The defendant faces charges of market manipulation and fraud, according to the documents.

What happened during Mango’s exploit?

On October 11, 2022, the Solana-based decentralized exchange Mango Markets suffered an attack. By the end of the day, the attacker had stolen approximately $110 million in various crypto assets from the platforms’ treasury. Eisenberg then returned $67 million after negotiating with Team Mango.

As revealed after the attack, Eisenberg and his team first manipulated the price of Mango Markets native MNGO token. The artificial inflation of token prices against the stablecoin USD Coin (USDC) allowed exploiters to take out massive loans that resulted in around $110 million in various cryptocurrencies plundered from the crypto platform.

Eisenberg said his team was running a highly profitable trading strategy, stocks he said weren’t breaking the rules because they were all within the scope of open market stocks. But the DoJ says his Mango exploit caused other investors to lose money and was deliberate market manipulation.

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