Mango Markets Fraudster Faces Prison in Unrelated Child Porn Case

Avraham Eisenberg, known for orchestrating the $100 million exploit of Mango Markets in 2022, has been sentenced to over four years in prison on child pornography charges, a case separate from his high-profile crypto fraud.

At a hearing held Wednesday in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York, a judge handed down a 52-month prison term for the child pornography conviction. The charges were brought in April 2024 following a 2023 guilty plea. Prosecutors earlier suggested a joint sentencing for both the child porn and fraud cases, but only the former moved ahead on May 1. The sentencing for the Mango Markets fraud is still on the docket.

Eisenberg’s legal troubles extend back to October 2022, when he manipulated a price oracle on the decentralized crypto exchange Mango Markets, leading to the loss of roughly $100 million in user funds. The incident triggered a sharp selloff in the exchange’s MNGO token, which lost more than half its value in a single day. Eisenberg claimed the move was legal, calling it an open-market strategy and later said he negotiated a partial return of funds after the platform’s insurance mechanisms failed.

He was arrested in Puerto Rico in December 2022 and charged by the FBI with commodities fraud and manipulation. In April 2024, a jury found him guilty of wire fraud as well. Eisenberg’s legal team has argued the exploit was a legitimate trading maneuver, but federal prosecutors pushed back, citing extensive evidence and arguing for conviction on all fronts.

During Solana’s 2021 bull run, Mango Markets made headlines by selling $70 million worth of MNGO tokens to the public. At the time, the sale was closed to U.S. investors, likely to avoid regulatory scrutiny, a strategy that has not protected it from the current legal challenges.