Avraham Eisenberg, the individual who was convicted of fraud and market manipulation in the $110 million theft from the decentralized finance (DeFi) protocol Mango Markets in October 2022, has now been accused of possessing child pornography.
According to a court filing dated April 3, which was publicly released on April 26, Eisenberg is alleged to have had images of children under the age of 12 who had not yet reached puberty on his electronic devices.
These new allegations follow a previous court filing in August 2023, which revealed that the images were initially discovered on Eisenberg’s laptops and cell phones during an initial investigation by the United States Federal Bureau of Investigation into the fraud and market manipulation charges.
After the discovery of child pornography on Eisenberg’s devices, law enforcement officials requested and obtained a second warrant in February 2023 to further investigate the initial warrant’s scope.
The recent court filing states that Eisenberg possessed and transferred child pornography images between 2017 and 2022. However, it is important to note that these allegations have not been proven in court. If found guilty, the Mango Markets exploiter could face a maximum of 10 years in prison under the U.S. penal code, as simple possession of child pornography carries no mandatory minimum sentence.
Investigative journalist Christopher Brunet has claimed that he obtained screenshots of conversations between Eisenberg and underage children, but considered them too disturbing to publish on Substack.
Eisenberg was arrested in Puerto Rico in December 2022 and has been in U.S. custody since January 2023. He was already convicted of fraud and market manipulation related to the $110 million exploit on the DeFi protocol Mango Markets in October 2022.
The court delivered its verdict on April 18 after a two-week jury trial, and the judge is scheduled to announce the sentencing on July 29. Eisenberg could potentially face up to 20 years in prison for the fraud charges.