Mango Markets Attacker Urges Court to Let Him Keep Hacked Funds

Countering claims of “duress,” Mango Markets attacker Avraham Eisenberg’s legal team has opposed Mango Labs’ lawsuit to reclaim remaining funds.

Mango Labs is the development team behind the Solana-based trading platform Mango Markets.

In October last year, the so-called “applied game theorist” turned to the trading platform to execute a series of trades on one account that inflated the value of tokens in another. He then borrowed approximately $110 million in assorted cryptocurrencies, using the value established in the second account as collateral.

The move, which Eisenberg described as a “highly profitable trading strategy,” had the knock-on effect of wiping out the Mango Markets platform, rendering it insolvent.

He and the Mango DAO, the decentralized community of voting token holders, reached an agreement that would see Eisenberg return $67 million, offering the attacker a bug bounty of $47 million.

In January, however, Mango Labs sued Eisenberg to reclaim these funds as well.

“Mango Labs offers just one argument in favor of voiding the Settlement Agreement—'duress,'” reads the latest opposition to this lawsuit. “Mango Labs now claims that Mango Markets had ‘no choice’ but to vote in favor of the Settlement Agreement. Mango Labs provides zero evidence in support of this theory.”

Eisenberg’s legal team argues that claims of duress are “more than three months too late,” suggesting that Mango Labs’ delayed claims “undermines any alleged irreparable harm” and “confirms that there is no true urgency.”

“In all likelihood, Mango Labs witnessed third parties bringing claims against Mr. Eisenberg (none of whom have sought preliminary injunctions) and crafted a scheme to get in on the action,” the filing reads.

Eisenberg in the hot seat

The Department of Justice arrested Eisenberg in December, charging him with “market-manipulation offenses.” Eisenberg has pled not guilty to these charges.

The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) each charged Eisenberg in January as well.

The CFTC’s civil suit charged the Mango Markets attacker “with a fraudulent and manipulative scheme to unlawfully obtain over $110 million in digital assets.”

The SEC has charged Eisenberg with violating manipulation and anti-fraud provisions in the Commission’s 1934 securities act.