Avraham Eisenberg – a man from Puerto Rico – is set to face charges in a New York City courtroom after allegedly invoking a crypto fraud scheme that cost investors more than $110 million.

Avraham Eisenberg Faces 40 Years in Jail

The scam in question is known as Mango Markets, and it’s believed Eisenberg manipulated the prices of various assets and futures contracts to give customers and traders the idea that their portfolios were spiking. At the time of writing, Eisenberg is facing as many as 40 years in a federal prison.

Assistant Attorney General Kenneth A. Polite, Jr. explained in a statement:

Exploiting decentralized finance platforms is the new frontier of old school financial crimes in which criminals abuse emerging technologies for their own personal gain. With this prosecution, the criminal division is sending the message that no matter the mechanism used to commit market manipulation and fraud, we will work to hold those responsible to account.

Mango Markets was brought down by the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ), which recently had a hand in bringing down an illicit crypto exchange stationed in China and founded by a Russian entrepreneur. It is believed that the exchange engaged in as many as $700 million worth of illicit trades.

Adding insult to injury was the follow-up insinuation that Binance – easily the largest and most popular digital currency exchange in the world – may have aided the firm by storing its bitcoin units. It’s alleged that Binance may have stored as many as half of the illicit BTC that made their way through the platform.

Michael J. Driscoll – the FBI New York field office assistant director – mentioned:

The defendant is alleged to have executed a scheme through which he fraudulently acquired over $100 million worth of cryptocurrency. The FBI is dedicated to safeguarding the integrity of all financial markets and will ensure any individual willing to exploit one be held responsible in the criminal justice system.

Eisenberg presently faces one count of commodities fraud, along with one count of wire fraud and another count of commodities manipulation. The first charge carries a maximum penalty of ten years, while the second carries 20 and the third ten.

Crime Is Getting Bigger and Bigger

Crypto crime has become rather large in recent weeks and months. Another crypto scam that was recently brought down was called My Big Coin. The founder and head executive of the platform – Randall Crater – was sentenced to eight years in prison for reportedly lying to both customers and investors and using their money to fund a lavish lifestyle.

A similar scenario was seen with the now defunct crypto exchange FTX. Its founder – Sam Bankman-Fried – is awaiting trial for allegedly using customer funds to pay off loans for his other company Alameda Research and to invest in luxury Bahamian real estate.

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