Lawyers representing the $116 million Mango Markets exploiter have convinced a judge to postpone the fraud trial until April 8, 2023.
Avraham Eisenberg’s fraud trial was set to commence on Dec. 4 but several circumstances impacted his trial preparations, according to his lawyers, who filed a successful motion for a continuance to District Court Judge Arun Subramanian on Nov. 2.
“As discussed in today’s conference, the motion for continuance is GRANTED. Trial in this case will begin on April 8, 2024,” Subramanian stated in a Nov. 3 court filing.
U.S. prosecutors contested the motion for continuance but were unsuccessful. Subramanian also ordered United States prosecutors and Eisenberg’s lawyers to submit a revised schedule for pretrial motions and submissions by Nov. 7.
Despite confessing his involvement in the Mango Markets exploit, Eisenberg plead not guilty to three criminal counts for commodities fraud, commodity manipulation and wire fraud in June.
In the motion, Eisenberg’s attorneys said they needed more time to sift through discovery materials submitted by U.S. prosecutors.
“The government has produced voluminous discovery in this case on a rolling basis […] which the defense is still analyzing and conferring with the client about.”
The lawyers added that they lost time to prepare with Eisenberg when he was “unexpectedly” transferred to the Metropolitan Detention Center (MDC) in Brooklyn on Oct. 26.
Eisenberg wasn’t permitted to transfer the discovery materials, which he annotated along with other legal paperwork relevant to the trial.
“The move to the MDC has already, and will continue to, severely inhibit defense counsel’s access to Mr. Eisenberg,” the lawyers added.
MCD is the prison which former FTX CEO Sam Bankman-Fried returned to after he was convicted on all seven fraud-related charges on Nov. 2.
Related: How low liquidity led to Mango Markets losing over $116 million
The Securities and Exchange Commission also charged Eisenberg on Jan. 20, alleging that he manipulated the Mango Markets governance token, MNGO, by taking out “massive loans” against its inflated collateral and draining Mango’s treasury of around $116 million.
Mango Markets is now also suing Avraham Eisenberg, seeking the return of the remaining $47 million he stole.https://t.co/7pDoHuigH4 https://t.co/H48nPPl13h
— web3 is going just great (@web3isgreat) January 26, 2023
It followed Eisenberg’s arrest in Puerto Rico about three weeks earlier on Dec. 27.
Eisenberg publicly confessed to the exploit on Oct. 15, 2022, arguing that his actions were completely legal. He initially sent back $67 million to Mango Markets’ decentralized autonomous organization as part of a bounty deal. However the team behind Mango Markets later sued Eisenberg for $47 million in damages plus interest.
Magazine: Should crypto projects ever negotiate with hackers? Probably
Only 20 of the 181 Bitcoin service providers registered with El Salvador’s central bank are operational, with the rest failing to meet the country’s requirements under its Bitcoin Law. Local media outlet El Mundo cited data from the Central Reserve Bank of El Salvador, showing that 11% of the service providers are operational. According to the central bank’s database, the rest of the providers are classified as non-operational. The data showed that at least 22 non-operational providers have failed to meet most of the country’s Bitcoin Law requirements, which mandate that providers implement stringent supervision of their financial systems. El Salvador’s Bitcoin Law requires providers to maintain an Anti-Money Laundering (AML) program, keep records that accurately reflect the company’s assets, liabilities and equity and have a tailored cybersecurity program depending on the nature of its services. The data showed that 89% of the registered providers have failed to meet some of these obligations to be classified as operational. Still, a few firms have satisfied the legal criteria, including the state-backed Chivo Wallet and companies including Crypto Trading & Investment and Fintech Américas. Related: Cathie Wood to kick off El Salvador’s AI public education program In 2021, El Salvador became the first country to accept Bitcoin as legal tender along with the US dollar. This move made Bitcoin integral to El Salvador President Nayib Bukele’s economic strategy. However, the Central American country recently signed a deal with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) on a $1.4 billion loan in exchange for rolling back some of its Bitcoin-related efforts. Under the agreement, taxes will be paid in US dollars and public institutions will limit their use of Bitcoin. On March 3, the IMF asked the country to stop its public sector Bitcoin buys. Still, Bukele said the government will continue to purchase Bitcoin, seemingly contradicting its IMF deal. The IMF deal prompted speculation about whether the country would rescind Bitcoin’s status as legal tender. John Dennehy, an El Salvador-based Bitcoin activist and educator, said in an X Space with Cointelegraph that a rollback law changing Bitcoin’s legal status is set to take effect on April 30. Magazine: Memecoin degeneracy is funding groundbreaking anti-aging research Tech giant Meta has been given the green light from the European Union’s data regulator to train its artificial intelligence models using publicly shared content across its social media platforms. Posts and comments from adult users across Meta’s stable of platforms, including Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp and Messenger, along with questions and queries to the company’s AI assistant, will now be used to improve its AI models, Meta said in an April 14 blog post. The company said it’s “important for our generative AI models to be trained on a variety of data so they can understand the incredible and diverse nuances and complexities that make up European communities.” Meta has a green light from data regulators in the EU to train its AI models using publicly shared content on social media. Source: Meta “That means everything from dialects and colloquialisms, to hyper-local knowledge and the distinct ways different countries use humor and sarcasm on our products,” it added. However, people’s private messages with friends, family and public data from EU account holders under the age of 18 are still off limits, according to Meta. People can also opt out of having their data used for AI training through a form that Meta says will be sent in-app, via email and “easy to find, read, and use.” Last July, Meta delayed training its AI using public content across its platforms after privacy advocacy group None of Your Business filed complaints in 11 European countries, which saw the Irish Data Protection Commission (IDPC) request a rollout pause until a review was conducted. The complaints claimed Meta’s privacy policy changes would have allowed the company to use years of personal posts, private images, and online tracking data to train its AI products. Meta says it has now received permission from the EU’s data protection regulator, the European Data Protection Commission, that its AI training approach meets legal obligations, and the company continues to engage “constructively with the IDPC.” “This is how we have been training our generative AI models for other regions since launch,” Meta said. “We’re following the example set by others, including Google and OpenAI, both of which have already used data from European users to train their AI models.” Related: EU could fine Elon Musk’s X $1B over illicit content, disinformation An Irish data regulator opened a cross-border investigation into Google Ireland Limited last September to determine whether the tech giant followed EU data protection laws while developing its AI models. X faced similar scrutiny and agreed to stop using personal data from users in the EU and European Economic Area last September. Previously, X used this data to train its artificial intelligence chatbot Grok. The EU launched its AI Act in August 2024, establishing a legal framework for the technology that included data quality, security and privacy provisions. Magazine: XRP win leaves Ripple a ‘bad actor’ with no crypto legal precedent set
South Korea is expanding a ban on digital asset firms’ applications servicing its citizens. On April 11, the country’s Financial Services Commission (FSC) announced that 14 crypto exchanges were blocked on the Apple store. Among the affected exchanges are KuCoin and MEXC. The report, which was made public on April 14, says the banned exchanges were allegedly operating as unregistered overseas virtual asset operators. The report also states that the Financial Information Analysis Institution (FIU) will continue to promote the blocking of the apps and internet sites of such operators to prevent money laundering and user damage. The request to block applications on the Apple Store comes after Google Play blocked access to several unregistered exchanges on March 26. KuCoin and MEXC were also targeted during the blocking of the Google Play apps. The FSC published a list of 22 unregistered platforms operating in the country, with 17 of them already blocked on Google’s marketplace. The 17 crypto exchanges blocked on Google Play. Source: FSC According to the FSC report, users will not be able to download the apps on the Apple Store, while existing users will not be able to update the apps. The FSC notes that “unreported business activities are criminal punishment matters” with penalties of up to five years in prison and a fine of up to 50 million won ($35,200). On March 21, South Korean publication Hankyung reported that the FIU and the FSC were considering sanctions against crypto exchanges operating in the country without registration with local regulators. The sanctions included blocking access to the companies’ apps. In South Korea, operators of crypto sales, brokerage, management, and storage must report to the FIU. Failure to comply with registration and reports is subject to penalties and sanctions. Related: South Korea reports first crypto ‘pump and dump’ case under new law The latest sanctions come as crypto is reaching a “saturation point” in South Korea. As of March 31, crypto exchange users in the country passed 16 million — equivalent to over 30% of the population. Industry officials predict that the number could surpass 20 million by the end of 2025. Over 20% of South Korean public officials hold cryptocurrencies, with the total amount reaching $9.8 million on March 27. The assets varied and included Bitcoin (BTC), Ether (ETH), XRP (XRP), and Dogecoin (DOGE). Magazine: Asia Express: Low users, sex predators kill Korean metaverses, 3AC sues Terra ‘Storybook stuff’: Inside the night Bryce Harper sent the Phillies to the World Series Story injured on diving stop, exits Red Sox game Game 1 of WS least-watched in recorded history MLB Rank 2023: Ranking baseball’s top 100 players Team Europe easily wins 4th straight Laver Cup Japan and South Korea have a lot at stake in a free and open South China Sea Game-changing Lectric XPedition launched as affordable electric cargo bike Bank of England’s extraordinary response to government policy is almost unthinkable | Ed Conway
Most of El Salvador’s Bitcoin service providers are non-operational
El Salvador’s Bitcoin experiment
EU regulators paused tech firms’ AI training plans
FIU considers sanctions against unregistered VASPs
