Milei's 'cryptogate' explodes: the first class-action lawsuit is now official in the US.

Javier Milei
Javier Milei

Javier Milei, president of Argentina, currently faces more than a hundred complaints that point to his alleged involvement in a large-scale scam linked to the Libra cryptocurrencyIn response to this massive accumulation of accusations, the nation's judiciary opened a case to investigate the situation. It will now be up to these authorities to assess whether there is sufficient evidence to proceed with a criminal case against the president and other potential suspects.

The 112 complaints presented to the courts maintain that Milei would have committed crimes such as negotiations incompatible with his public investiture, fraud, violations of the Public Ethics Law and criminal association to commit fraud.

The first of these complaints was assigned to federal judge María Servini, who operates from the Comodoro Py courts. A draw was held by the Federal Chamber for his selection and, according to judicial sources, the other lawsuits, being related to these and similar events, will be a consolidated part of the initial file.

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The story of Libra and Milei

It all started on Friday, February 14, when the Argentine president shared a message on his X account (which he later deleted) which read: "Liberal Argentina is growing! This private project will focus on boosting the development of the Argentine economy by financing small businesses and national ventures. The world wants to invest in Argentina. Libra."

After this post and in a matter of minutes, The value of the cryptocurrency went from $0,000001 to $5,20 per unit, more than double the number of more stable and well-known digital assets such as Solana (SOL) and Ripple (XPR) that have been fighting for years for third and fourth place by market capitalization.

As it was expected, the dizzying rise and subsequent collapse of Libra It caught the attention of more than one cryptocurrency specialist. At that very moment, alarm bells went off, and warnings began to spread that they weren't in vain, as scams and Ponzi schemes are no stranger to this ecosystem.

One of the first signs that caught the attention of experts was that Libra had been created just three minutes before Milei posted a message encouraging unwary investors to take advantage of it. In fact, this is one of the grounds for suggesting a premeditated act.

Likewise, those who know the subject They observed that the asset was largely concentrated in 5 wallets, which they owned about 80% of totalIn this sense, Libra was quite unusual because it's usually between 20 and 30% in different wallets. It was precisely this concentration that made it possible for the main holders of the token exert significant influence on the price with a view to achieving huge profits just before withdrawing their capital.

After Milei's tweet, Libra's global market capitalization reached $4.500 billion. However, shortly after and abruptly, the wallets with most of these tokens they withdrew 90 million dollars and it was there that the cryptocurrency collapse occurred.

What is Libra really?

Libra became known in Argentina and worldwide thanks to Milei, who promoted it as a reliable project called “Long Live Freedom.” But in reality It's a memecoin or a meme coin that has no underlying assets to back it and whose value depends on the support of investors and a popular figure.

Just like DOGE and Elon Musk, Milei generated trust among its followers and attracted thousands of investors who drove up the price of Libra in minutes. However, the lack of tangible backing made it not only highly volatile and short-lived, but it also led to bankruptcy. However, it allowed The 8 accounts that funded the asset will seize around $300 million.

It is important to note that this cryptocurrency was created by Kelsier Ventures, a company owned by Hayden Mark Davis and his father, Tom Davis, and with the participation of KIP Protocol, whose CEO is Julian Peh, a programmer from Singapore.

Miley and her ties to the creator of Libra

Tras the collapse of Libra, The Argentine president tried to distance himself from the asset that swindled $300 million from users who ventured to buy the token. after Javier Milei's post on X. Literally, he wrote that “I wasn't familiar with the details of the project, and after learning about it, I decided not to spread the word about it further."

Given this fact, Many journalists tried to get an exclusive And it was Jonatan Viale, from Todo Noticias, considered one of the allies of the Casa Rosada after Milei's arrival, who was in charge of presenting the president's version of events. However, the discomfort of the president could not be avoided, The unedited version was leaked, in which the advisors asked the journalist to delete segments of the conversation and whispered advice to the interviewee.

Although The Argentine president has tried to disassociate himself of the Libra pyramid scam, his relationship with the creator has been recorded: on February 16, Davis shared a post on his social networks where he presented himself as an advisor to the president, who was "collaborating with him and his team" in DeFi initiatives for the development of Argentina.

Previously, on January 30th, a meeting with Milei at the Casa Rosada with the aim of creating a joint work round to "to promote Argentine technological development and position Argentina as a global technological power," as explained by the Presidential House itself in a post where not only David is mentioned, but also "the representatives of the company KIP Protocol, Mauricio Novellli and Julian Peh and to the presidential spokesman, Manuel Adorni".

El Wall Street Journal published an article titled “The Scam Expert Behind Argentina’s $250 Million Cryptocurrency Scandal” that focuses on a complete X-ray of Hayden Mark Davis, who would be the main person responsible behind the Libra pyramid scheme.

The trial and the political future

Javier Milei faces charges before the Argentine justice system for alleged criminal association in a stratospheric Libra scam. In this pyramid scheme More than 40.000 investors were affected. The complaint also accuses him of failing to fulfill his duties as a public official, which allegedly violates the Public Ethics Act.

In parallel, a law firm acting on behalf of some plaintiffs has requested the US authorities to investigate the president and some close associates for possible “criminal operations” related to the Libra token. In the political sphere, justice must pay attention to what the opposition coalition to Milei Union for the Homeland, who is calling for the implementation of a impeachment trial against Milei in Congress. It is a Kirchnerist-leaning group with various left-wing parties. However, to achieve this, it needs the support of two-thirds of the deputies, an unrealistic amount, difficult to achieve under the country's current conditions.


Investing in cryptoassets is not fully regulated, may not be suitable for retail investors due to high volatility and there is a risk of losing all invested amounts.