Lawyers representing the individual accused of exploiting Mango Markets for $116 million have convinced a judge to delay the fraud trial until April 8, 2023.
Initially, Avraham Eisenberg’s trial was scheduled to start on December 4. However, his legal team cited many reasons affecting their trial preparations, leading to the decision to request a continuance. The request was granted by District Court Judge Arun Subramanian on November 2, 2023.
In response to this development, Judge Subramanian officially postponed the trial to April 8, 2024, as detailed in a court filing on November 3. U.S. prosecutors opposed the motion for a continuance but were unsuccessful in their efforts.
As part of the decision, Judge Subramanian instructed both U.S. prosecutors and Eisenberg’s legal team to present a revised schedule for pretrial motions and submissions by November 7.
Eisenberg, despite admitting his involvement in the Mango Markets exploit, has pleaded not guilty to three criminal charges related to commodities fraud, commodity manipulation, and wire fraud since June.
The motion for continuance emphasized the need for more time to review the extensive discovery materials provided by U.S. prosecutors. The defense is still in the process of analyzing this substantial amount of evidence and discussing it with their client.
Eisenberg’s legal team also faced unexpected challenges when their client was transferred to the Metropolitan Detention Center (MDC) in Brooklyn on October 26.
Unfortunately, Eisenberg was unable to transfer the annotated discovery materials and other legal documents relevant to the trial.
The lawyers expressed concerns about the hindrance in their access to Mr. Eisenberg caused by his transfer to the MDC, impacting their ability to prepare for the trial.
It’s worth noting that the MDC gained attention recently when former FTX CEO Sam Bankman-Fried was convicted on all seven fraud-related charges and returned to the same facility on November 2.
In addition to these legal challenges, the Securities and Exchange Commission filed charges against Eisenberg on January 20.
These charges allege that he manipulated the Mango Markets governance token, MNGO, by taking out substantial loans against inflated collateral, ultimately depleting Mango’s treasury by around $116 million.
