Mango Markets scammer Avraham Eisenberg faces a court ruling from the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), the regulatory body reported on Friday last week.
The SEC charged him with market manipulation after he manipulated pricing for Mango Market’s native token MNGO using bots. Investors lost roughly $116 million from the platform following the incident.
According to the SEC, the token was “a security,” adding that the suspect sold a massive number of perpetual futures for the tokens.
He later repurchased them under another account and inflated their price, offering him $116 million in cryptocurrency tokens. The move purged the entire Mango Market platform of its tokens, the SEC filing said.
David Hirsch, Crypto Assets and Cyber Unit chief, said in a statement,
“Eisenberg engaged in a manipulative and deceptive scheme to artificially inflate the price of the MNGO token, which was purchased and sold as a crypto asset security, in order to borrow and then withdraw nearly all available assets from Mango Markets, which left the platform at a deficit when the security price returned to its pre-manipulation level.”
Rug Pull, Pull Over
The news comes after Eisenberg launched the massive rug pull to defraud investors, triggering a major backlash on social media.
He later boasted to people on Twitter about his tactic, stating it was a “highly profitable trading strategy.” Many people responded to his comments by demanding authorities arrest him, despite his replies that his actions were “legal”.
The SEC concluded that Eisenberg faces charges in Manhattan district courts for “violating anti-fraud and market manipulation provisions of the securities laws and seeks permanent injunctive relief, a conduct-based injunction, disgorgement with prejudgment interest, and civil penalties.”
Cybersecurity firm CertiK reported in January on the rise in cryptocurrency fraud, manipulation, and cybercrime last year, with similar numbers expected for 2023.
One of the largest financial scandals to date, the ongoing FTX crisis has prompted governments and organisations to crack down on crypto regulations following the collapse.
