Another cryptocurrency investor has been charged with fraud and market manipulation, as the U.S. Department of Justice continues to take legal action against individuals exploiting decentralized finance technologies for criminal gain.
Avraham Eisenberg, 27, was charged with fraudulently obtaining about $110 million worth of cryptocurrency from the digital asset exchange Mango Markets through artificially manipulating the price of specific perpetual futures contracts, or financial agreements that require the buying or selling of an asset at a particular point in the future.
Eisenberg was charged in the Southern District of New York on one count of commodities fraud, one count of commodities manipulation and one count of wire fraud. He was arrested in late December in San Juan, Puerto Rico, pursuant to a criminal complaint, and subsequently detained.
“Exploiting decentralized finance platforms is the new frontier of old school financial crimes in which criminals abuse emerging technologies for their own personal gain,” said Assistant Attorney General Kenneth A. Polite, Jr. of the Justice Department’s Criminal Division in a press release. “With this prosecution, the Criminal Division is sending the message that no matter the mechanism used to commit market manipulation and fraud, we will work to hold those responsible to account.”
Mango Markets functions as a decentralized currency exchange platform which provides a marketplace for the trading of cryptocurrencies and other digital assets. The platform is one branch of a larger parent company, Mango Decentralized Autonomous Organization, which has its proprietary MNGO crypto token available to trade for investors on its platform.
Prior to the charges against
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