By Michael Scott
Lawyers representing Avraham Eisenberg, the suspected scammer, persuaded the judge that additional time was required to evaluate discovery evidence provided by United States prosecutors.
Mango Markets Exploit Case Facing Five-Month Delay
The $116M Mango Markets exploiter’s attorneys have persuaded a judge to push the fraud trial to April 8 next year. Avraham Eisenberg’s fraud case was to start on December 4. However, his legal team said that trial preparations were affected by numerous circumstances. On November 2, they successfully filed an extension motion to Arun Subramanian, a district court judge.
In a November 3 court filing, the judge stated that following discussions in that day’s conference, the motion for extension was granted. Despite U.S. prosecutors opposing the motion, they failed. In addition, Subramanian instructed them and the accused’s attorneys to provide an edited schedule for pretrial submissions and motions by November 7.
Additional Period Necessary to Evaluate Huge Discoveries
Eisenberg admitted he was involved in the Mango Markets exploit. In June, however, he pleaded innocent to three counts of commodity manipulation, commodities fraud, and wire fraud.
In the motion, Eisenberg’s attorneys stated they required additional time to evaluate materials provided by United States prosecutors. Specifically, they said the government had submitted huge discoveries on a rolling basis.
As such, the defense was still assessing and deliberating with the accused. The attorneys also claimed that Eisenberg’s ‘unanticipated’ transfer to the Metropolitan Detention Center (MDC) in Brooklyn on October 26 impacted preparations.
Eisenberg Counsel Alleging Inaccessibility to Resist Metropolitan Detention Center
Eisenberg was not allowed to move the discovery materials, which he explained in addition to other legal paperwork pertinent to the case. The attorneys added that the transfer to the Metropolitan Detention Center had already been and would keep preventing their access to the accused.
The Metropolitan Detention Center is the jail that Sam Bankman-Fried (SBF), ex-FTX’s chief executive officer, was taken to after being found guilty of seven fraud-associated charges on November 2.
On January 20, Eisenberg was also charged by the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The regulator asserted he manipulated MNGO, Mango Markets governance token, by taking ‘significant loans’ against its inflated security. Besides, he drained Mango’s treasury of nearly $116M.
It came after Eisenberg’s apprehension in Puerto Rico, nearly three weeks prior on December 27.
On October 15 last year, Eisenberg publicly acknowledged the exploit, asserting that his deeds were lawful. Part of a bounty deal involved an initial return of $67M to Mango Markets’ decentralized autonomous organization (DAO). Nevertheless, he was later sued for $47M in damages and interest by the team behind Mango Markets.