U.S. District Judge Arun Subramanian has overturned all of Avraham “Avi” Eisenberg’s federal criminal convictions arising from his October 2022 exploit of the Mango Markets DeFi platform. In a 35‑page opinion issued on May 23, 2025, the Southern District of New York granted Eisenberg’s Rule 29 motion for judgment of acquittal, vacating the April 2024 jury verdict that had found him guilty of commodities fraud, commodities manipulation, and wire fraud related to the roughly $110 million Mango Markets trading scheme. The court held that prosecutors had not properly established venue in SDNY for the commodities counts and had also failed to prove a material misrepresentation necessary to sustain the wire fraud charge. The ruling does not address or resolve separate charges Eisenberg faces for alleged possession of child sexual abuse material, which were brought independently of the Mango Markets case and are outside the scope of Judge Subramanian’s acquittal order. Prosecutors had previously highlighted those unrelated charges when arguing for a substantial prison term in the now‑overturned Mango Markets matter. As a result, while the market‑manipulation and fraud case tied to Mango Markets has been dismissed at the trial‑court level, Eisenberg remains in significant legal jeopardy on other alleged offenses. Legally, the decision is seen as a landmark setback for U.S. authorities in one of the highest‑profile DeFi enforcement actions to date, underscoring the challenges of fitting open‑market trading strategies and venue theories within existing commodities and wire fraud statutes.

AI-generated background, compiled from web sources — not editorial content.

More coverage

Loading related coverage…

Explore the full feed

Comments

Loading comments…