Mango Markets attacker receives detention order from U.S Judge

Avraham Eisenberg, the assailant at Mango Markets, is the subject of a detention order from the U.S. District Court for the District of Puerto Rico.

Using the justification that “no condition or combination of conditions of release will fairly insure the defendant’s appearance [in court] as needed,” Magistrate Judge Bruce McGiverin decided it was necessary to detain Eisenberg.

For his part in the $110 million Mango Markets price manipulation attack last October, Eisenberg was arrested last week and charged with commodities fraud and manipulation. At the time, Eisenberg claimed the attack was legal and carried out in the best interests of Mango Market’s depositors, citing “bad debt” from Mango Markets bailing out Solend in June. He also returned most of it.

Eisenberg is viewed as a significant flight risk by the Puerto Rico District Court for several reasons. After brazenly stealing $110 million in cryptocurrency, of which $40 million is still unaccounted for, he departed the country for two months, said McGiverin. 

Along with having two citizenships, he also has “links to a foreign country, the resources, and the desire to flee.”

Eisenberg’s “lengthy time of incarceration if convicted” and his ambiguous and unreliable background information were also mentioned in the document as additional signs that he posed a flight risk.

Unaware that he would be the project’s sole controller and owner, Eisenberg had pitched the FortressUSD (FUSD) stablecoin concept to the FortressDAO DAO. He was the DAO’s Chief Technical Officer at the time, and as the money flowed in, he changed it to FUSD and made off with the entire treasury.

In response to a Twitter backlash from investors, Eisenberg decided to return part of the money. Eisenberg used a similar vulnerability to attack Aave in November, one month after hitting Mango Markets, but it finally failed, likely costing him millions of dollars.