Argentine lawyers file fraud charges against Milei over crypto

By Al Mayadeen English
Source: News websites
17 Feb 2025 13:46

On Friday, Milei posted on X about $LIBRA, a digital currency he claimed was designed to promote economic growth, before deleting the post within hours, after which the currency’s value plummeted.

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Argentina's President Javier Milei delivers his speech at the Annual Meeting of World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, Thursday, January 23, 2025. (AP)

Argentine lawyers filed fraud charges against President Javier Milei in criminal court on Sunday over his promotion of a cryptocurrency on social media, The Associated Press reported on Monday, citing one of the lawyers.

On Friday, Milei posted on X about $LIBRA, a digital currency he claimed was designed to promote economic growth by financing small businesses and startups. However, he deleted the post within hours, after which the currency’s value plummeted, resulting in millions of dollars in losses for short-term investors, according to financial platform Dexscreener.

The cryptocurrency, developed by KIP Protocol and Hayden Davis, was accessible through a link directing users to a website called vivalalibertadproject.com—a reference to the slogan Milei frequently uses in his speeches and social media posts.

In a statement on Saturday, the president's office claimed that Milei had no involvement in the cryptocurrency’s development. It said he removed the post to prevent speculation and mitigate further exposure following public reaction to the project's launch.

Jonatan Baldiviezo, one of the plaintiffs and a lawyer, told the AP they identified an illicit scheme intended to carry out "an indeterminate number of frauds." He argued that "within this illicit association, the crime of fraud was committed, in which the president’s actions were essential."

Baldiviezo, along with lawyer Marcos Zelaya, engineer Maria Eva Koutsovitis, and economist Claudio Lozano—who previously led Argentina’s Central Bank under former President Alberto Fernandez—filed the complaint. Criminal justice authorities are expected to assign a judge to the case or refer it to a prosecutor for further investigation on Monday.

The plaintiffs likened Milei’s involvement to a crypto scam known as a "rug pull", where developers launch a token to attract investors before abruptly abandoning it, rendering the tokens worthless. Baldiviezo also accused Milei of violating the Public Ethics Law.

In response, the president's office defended Milei’s actions, stating that he had merely "shared a post on his personal accounts announcing the launch of KIP Protocol’s project, as he does daily with many entrepreneurs who wish to launch projects in Argentina to create jobs and attract investments."

Following the deletion of his post, Milei took to X to deny any prior knowledge of the cryptocurrency’s development and accused his political opponents of attempting to exploit the situation.

"I was not aware of the details of the project, and after getting informed, I decided not to continue promoting it [which is why I deleted the tweet]," he wrote.

The office added that the country’s Anti-Corruption Office, which operates under the Executive Branch, would take immediate action. It also confirmed that Milei and members of his administration had recently met with KIP Protocol representatives at the presidential office.

"All the information gathered in the investigation will be handed over to the judiciary to determine if any of the companies or individuals linked to the KIP Protocol project committed a crime," the administration stated on Saturday.

Meanwhile, Hayden Mark Davis, one of KIP Protocol’s representatives who had met with Milei, accused the president of causing the cryptocurrency’s collapse.

In a video posted on social media on Saturday, Davis stated that despite prior commitments, "Milei and his team unexpectedly changed their position, withdrawing their support and deleting all previous posts on social media."