Today in Crypto: Former FBI Agent Says DeFi Exchange Mango Case Not a Hacker; Turkey Seizes $40M in Crypto Gambling Case

There’s been $40 million in cryptocurrency seized in a Turkish crackdown on illegal gambling, according to the Ankara Chief Public Prosecutor’s office, Coindesk wrote.

Authorities detained 46 suspects in the country on allegations of operating an illegal gambling ring which had sent illicit crypto gains to wallets owned by a criminal organization from Ankara.

“This operation came out of Turkish Cyprus and is linked to the murder of Halil Falyalı,” said Turkey’s Interior Minister, Süleyman Soylu, as reported in the Daily Sabah. “A transfer of approximately 2.5 billion Turkish lira ($135 million) of money occurred. Approximately $40 million of money has been confiscated at the moment.”

Soylu was referring to Halil Falyah, a Turkish casino owner killed in February at his home in Kyrenia, in Northern Cyprus.

Meanwhile, the $114 million in funds taken from decentralized crypto exchange Mango Markets didn’t happen due to a hack, according to ex-FBI agent Chris Tarbell, Coindesk wrote, and instead it was “more of a market manipulation.”

Tarbell used to be on the FBI’s cybercrime squad in New York. He said it wasn’t about “getting into a system and getting unauthorized access.”

He said the case was a unique one because, in regulated markets, a criminal would’ve been arrested. But one of the exploiters who confessed, Avraham Eisenberg, said the exploit was a “high-profit trading strategy” in a Tweet. He said he would be returning $67 million of the stolen funds.

The case stemmed from early in October, when exploiters manipulated the MNGO native token through smart contract protocol loopholes. As there was no centralized entity in place, the opportunity was ripe for the taking, Tarbell said.

In Tarbell’s opinion, the crypto industry needs to “clean itself up.” He added that regulators were likely to step in, as they have been talking about doing all over the world — even if crypto doesn’t want the regulators to do so.