In opening statement, U.S. Assistant Attorney says Mango Markets attackers 'did not lend money, they stole'

Opening statements were made on Tuesday in the U.S. government’s commodities manipulation and fraud trial of Mango Markets attacker Avi Eisenberg. Opening the government’s case, Assistant U.S. Attorney Tian Huang likened Eisenberg’s “scam” to that of a con man who lured victims into lending him money by offering a “beautiful fake diamond ring” as collateral. “He wasn’t really lending money, he was stealing. He was committing commodities fraud and market manipulation,” she said in her opening statement. The U.S. government plans to use Eisenberg’s private chats, public trades and flight records to prove he knew his “huge fake bets” were illegal. Eisenberg’s five-member trial team hinted that they intend to exploit the nascent nature of cryptocurrencies and their murky regulatory status to their advantage. In opening statements, Sanford Talkin said the government “won’t make a difference” in trying to apply commodity rules to highly speculative tokens like MNGOs. Their defense appears to hinge on the legality of Eisenberg’s alleged actions in the trading environment of high-risk, high-reward bets. Talkin said that "Eisenberg risked losing $13 million" to net $110 million from Mango Markets, adding that "he could have lost everything." Traders at Mango Markets understood and accepted the risks of trading in this murky field, and Eisenberg just happened to make a fortune. Talkin said: "Eisenberg implemented a successful and legal trading strategy in the crypto world." (CoinDesk) Previously, the criminal fraud and manipulation trial of cryptocurrency trader Avi Eisenberg is about to officially start on Tuesday. Ahead of the trial, a federal judge has selected a 15-member jury, including rare book sellers, elementary school music instructors and financial professionals. The trial is expected to last two weeks and will focus on whether Eisenberg violated the law and paralyzed the Solana ecological cryptocurrency trading platform Mango Markets by implementing the so-called "highly profitable trading strategy" in October last year.