Judge pushes Mango Markets exploiter sentencing to April 10

Avraham “Avi” Eisenberg, the individual convicted of fraud and market manipulation related to an exploit of the Mango Markets decentralized exchange, will be sentenced on April 10.

In a Jan. 8 filing in the US District Court for the Southern District of New York (SDNY), Judge Arun Subramanian adjourned Eisenberg’s sentencing hearing to April 10 after a request from his lawyers. He was initially scheduled to be sentenced in a Dec. 12 hearing, which was later postponed to Feb. 11 following an April 2024 conviction.

The Mango Markets exploiter’s legal team requested a delay on Jan. 7 due to “the factual record of the case and the complexity of some of the sentencing issues.” The US prosecutor’s office did not object to the change.

Eisenberg was responsible for hacking Mango Markets through an exploit in October 2022, draining more than $100 million from the platform. He returned roughly $67 million but retained more than $40 million following a governance vote by the community. US authorities arrested Eisenberg in December 2022, and he has been in custody for roughly two years.

If sentenced to the maximum time serving consecutively, Eisenberg could face 20 years behind bars. 

Related: SEC files ‘settled charges’ against Mango Markets operators

Following his sentencing, Eisenberg could face civil enforcement actions from the US Securities and Exchange Commission and the Commodity Futures Trading Commission. Both cases were stayed in March 2023 and could resume after the conclusion of the criminal case.

SDNY prosecutors have been responsible for trying cases against many high-profile figures in the crypto industry, including former FTX CEO Sam Bankman-Fried, Terraform Labs co-founder Do Kwon, and former Celsius CEO Alex Mashinsky. Kwon, who was recently extradited to the US from Montenegro, is scheduled to go to trial in January 2026.

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