Ex-FTX exec ‘not worried’ about reporting to prison on Oct. 11

A US federal judge has vacated key fraud and manipulation convictions against Avraham Eisenberg, the trader at the center of the case involving a $110 million exploit of the decentralized exchange Mango Markets.On Friday, US District Judge Arun Subramanian ruled that the evidence presented at trial failed to support the jury’s conclusion that Eisenberg made materially false representations to Mango Markets.The decision vacates Eisenberg’s convictions for commodities fraud and market manipulation and acquits him of a third charge, significantly weakening the government’s case.Eisenberg, a self-proclaimed “applied game theorist,” was convicted in 2024 for artificially inflating the price of Mango’s MNGO token by over 1,300% in a matter of minutes and using the resulting gains as collateral to withdraw $110 million in crypto assets from the platform.Related: US DOJ seizes $24M in crypto from accused Qakbot malware developerJudge sides with EisenbergThe Justice Department argued that he deceived Mango’s smart contract-based lending system, but Eisenberg’s defense maintained that he merely exploited poorly designed, permissionless code — without making any false representations.Judge Subramanian agreed, writing that “Mango Markets was permissionless and automatic,” meaning the system couldn’t be deceived in a legal sense. “There was insufficient evidence of falsity,” the judge added, siding with Eisenberg’s interpretation of DeFi mechanics.US judge siding with Eisenberg on nature of the exploit. Source: Bwbx.ioThe judge also rejected prosecutors’ argument that the case should be heard in New York. Eisenberg was in Puerto Rico at the time of the trades, and the court found that no meaningful activity tied to the alleged crime occurred in New York.The DOJ had cited a Poughkeepsie-based Mango user and a third-party vendor in Manhattan, but the judge ruled these were not enough to establish proper venue.The US government must now decide whether to refile the vacated charges, though the Trump administration has recently signaled a reduced focus on crypto enforcement. Eisenberg still faces civil suits from both the SEC and CFTC.While this ruling clears Eisenberg in the Mango Markets case, he remains behind bars.Related: Mango Markets exploiter sentenced to over 4 years on child abuse material chargesEisenberg charged with child pornographyIn a separate case, Eisenberg was sentenced to nearly four years in prison on May 1 after pleading guilty to possessing child pornography — a charge stemming from unrelated evidence uncovered during his arrest.In December 2022, US federal law enforcement authorities arrested Eisenberg in Puerto Rico. FBI officials charged the hacker with one count of commodities fraud and one count of commodities manipulation.A jury found Eisenberg guilty of wire fraud, commodities fraud, and commodities manipulation in April 2024. The defense argued that the exploit was not a cybercrime and represented a “successful and legal trading strategy.”Magazine: Crypto scam hub expose stunt goes viral, Kakao detects 70K scam apps: Asia Express

Texas Governor Greg Abbott has signaled support for a bill recently passed by the state House of Representatives that would establish a strategic cryptocurrency reserve.In a May 22 X post, Abbott posted a Techstory article about Texas state lawmakers’ efforts to create a Bitcoin (BTC) reserve. The story pointed out that the decision for the passage of SB 21, the bill in question, now rests on Abbott’s shoulders, roughly three months after it was introduced. Since taking office, Abbott referred to himself as a “crypto law proposal supporter” in 2021 and suggested that he would support policies to establish Texas as a “crypto capital” in 2024. Texas was one of a handful of state-level governments that proposed setting up a strategic crypto reserve after the 2024 federal elections.   Related: Ukraine strategic Bitcoin reserve bill reportedly in final stagesOn May 6, New Hampshire Governor Kelly Ayotte was the first to sign a Bitcoin reserve bill into law. Arizona Governor Katie Hobbs later approved a law allowing the state to claim ownership of unclaimed crypto. Some jurisdictions have rebuffed efforts to pass similar legislation, with roughly half of the 50 state governments considering a Bitcoin reserve.New administration working to have the US government hodlAt the federal level, President Donald Trump signed an executive order (EO) in March for a “Strategic Bitcoin Reserve” and a “Digital Asset Stockpile,” but Congress had not codified the order as of May 23. Wyoming Senator Cynthia Lummis has led efforts in the chamber to pass the Boosting Innovation, Technology, and Competitiveness through Optimized Investment Nationwide, or BITCOIN, Act, reintroduced a few days after Trump’s EO.As of March 11, the bill has been referred to the Senate Banking Committee, and it was unclear if or when the chamber would consider a vote. The Senate will likely first move forward with debate on a bill to regulate payment stablecoins, the GENIUS Act, with some lawmakers anticipating a vote by Memorial Day, May 26.Magazine: Adam Back says Bitcoin price cycle ’10x bigger’ but will still decisively break above $100K

Members of the US House of Representatives called for the Justice Department to investigate Donald Trump’s May 22 dinner for his top memecoin investors, citing concerns about “foreign influence over US policy decisions” and “potential corruption and emoluments clause violations.”In a May 22 letter to the Justice Department, 35 House members asked the public integrity section acting chief, Edward Sullivan, to launch an inquiry over the memecoin dinner to determine whether it violated the federal bribery statute or the foreign emoluments clause of the US Constitution. Under the emoluments clause, a US president is barred from accepting any gift from a foreign state without the approval of Congress. Bloomberg reported that a majority of the attendees at the memecoin dinner were likely foreign nationals based on their connections to crypto exchanges. “US law prohibits foreign persons from contributing to US political campaigns,” said the letter. “However, the $TRUMP memecoin, including the promotion of a dinner promising exclusive access to the President, opens the door for foreign governments to buy influence with the President, all without disclosing their identities.”May 22 letter to DOJ official calling for investigation into Trump memecoin dinner. Source: Representative Sean CastenThe call for an investigation and a press conference asking Trump to “release the guest list” for the dinner both occurred hours before the event, which was held at the Trump National Golf Club outside Washington, DC. A group of protesters, joined by Senator Jeff Merkley, gathered outside the venue with signs stating “illegal crypto party” and “democracy is not for sale.”Related: Who attended Trump’s controversial memecoin dinner?Though some of the dinner attendees covered their faces with masks to conceal their identities, protesters and members of the media confirmed that Tron founder Justin Sun appeared at the event, as well as other Trump supporters who posted to social media. The complete list of attendees was not available at the time of publication. The memecoin dinner still has the potential to affect pending legislation in CongressIn addition to the call for a DOJ investigation, Democratic lawmakers in the House and Senate proposed legislation to address what they called “Trump’s crypto corruption” as Congress considered a bill to regulate stablecoins and a market structure bill. Several Senate Democrats who initially voted against advancing the stablecoin bill, called the GENIUS Act, later sided with Republicans to set up a debate in the chamber.Representative Maxine Waters introduced a bill to limit the access of any US president, vice president, members of Congress and their families to cryptocurrencies. Members of the Senate will also propose an amendment to the GENIUS Act to address Trump’s connection to World Liberty Financial, a crypto platform backed by the president’s family that issued its USD1 stablecoin.Magazine: AI cures blindness, ‘good’ propaganda bots, OpenAI doomsday bunker: AI Eye