NEW YORK In October 2022, cryptocurrency trader Avi Eisenberg stole $110 million from Mango Markets, a decentralised financial platform. A Manhattan jury convicted Eisenberg guilty of fraud and market manipulation.

For the plan, Eisenberg was charged with wire fraud, commodities fraud, and commodities manipulation after his arrest in Puerto Rico in December 2022.

Judge Arun Subramanian of the New York District Court has not yet handed down a punishment to him, but he might spend up to 20 years in federal prison for his offences.

Eisenberg's defence team attempted to portray his trades on Mango Markets as “successful and legal” during his trial in the Southern District of New York.

They claimed that at the time of the heist, his trades “fully complied” with the meagre regulations of the decentralised protocol.

However, the 12-person jury wasn't convinced.supporting the prosecution's claims that Eisenberg engaged in "brazen" deception and manipulation instead. Eisenberg is the most recent crypto criminal to be found guilty of fraud.

This conviction comes soon after the 25-year sentence and conviction of FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried for his role in the company's collapse, as well as the earlier this month finding of Do Kwon, co-founder of Terraform Labs, for fraud in a civil fraud case.

Eisenberg pumped the price of MNGO permanent futures by over 1000% on October 11, 2022, and then used his newly-created collateral to deceive the protocol into letting him "borrow" $110 million in other cryptocurrencies.

However, Eisenberg wasn't "borrowing," he was stealing; he submitted an anonymous suggestion to the decentralised autonomous organisation (DAO) Mango Markets is willing to repay $67 million of his illicit gains in exchange for a pledge not to press charges against him and the ability to keep the remaining funds for himself.

Even though Eisenberg's defence team, led by well-known crypto defence attorney Brian Klein, contended that Eisenberg was acting lawfully, prosecutors presented the jury with a mountain of evidence,including his flight to Israel after his identity as the exploiter was revealed and his internet searches for terms like "statute of limitations market manipulation," "FBI surveillance," and "elements of fraud."