Argentine Lawyers Hit Milei With Fraud Charges, Class-Action Over Libra Coin Rug-Pull

Authored by Stephen Katte via CoinTelegraph.com,

Argentine lawyers have reportedly filed charges against Argentina’s president, Javier Milei, in a criminal court for promoting a cryptocurrency that briefly pumped and then tanked over the weekend. 

The Libertad project’s native Solana token, Libra (LIBRA), rallied to a market capitalization of $4.56 billion on Feb. 14, after Milei posted about the token on X. It then fell over 94% after he deleted the post, prompting accusations of a pump and dump scheme. 

Lawyers Marcos Zelaya and Jonatan Baldiviezo, along with engineer María Eva Koutsovitis and economist Claudio Lozano, have filed a criminal complaint that alleges Milei was complicit in fraud by promoting Libra, according to a Feb. 17 Associated Press report. 

Source: Kobeissi Letter

Baldiviezo also accused Milei of violating the Public Ethics Law, which is Argentina’s framework for public officials, requiring them to declare asset holdings and conflicts of interest. 

 “Within this illicit association, the crime of fraud was committed, in which the president’s actions were essential,” Baldiviezo said.

A judge will be assigned to the case, or it will be referred to a prosecutor for further investigation on Feb. 17, according to the Associated Press report.

Meanwhile, Argentine lawyer Agustín Rombolá, founder and associate of Rombola Mangione law firm, has filed a separate legal complaint about Milei promoting Libra. 

In a Feb. 16 statement to X, Rombolá, who is also a member of the Argentine political party Unión Cívica Radical, said he had reported Milei for alleged “fraud, negotiations incompatible with public office, price manipulation and financial crimes.”

Source: Agustín Rombolá

Rombolá also said his firm is preparing a class-action suit for people who might have invested in the token and lost money. 

Argentina’s presidential office didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment. 

After the token’s collapse, Milei requested the Anti-Corruption Office to investigate all government members, including himself, for potential misconduct, with the findings to be shared with the courts, Argentina’s presidential office said in a statement. 

The presidential office claimed that the president was not aware of the details of the project when he endorsed it and had no connection to the company that launched the token.

However, Milei did disclose that he held a meeting with KIP Protocol representatives on Oct. 19 in Argentina, where the company informed him about the blockchain project.

KIP Protocol, a Web3 company that builds AI payment infrastructure, has said it was the tech consultancy company hired to help distribute project funds to local businesses in Argentina. However, it says it didn’t create the token or act as a market maker.

Some analysts have also raised concerns about the project after discovering that Libra’s website domain was created hours before launch, and there is no public owner information.

Opposition lawmaker Leandro Santoro told Reuters he would be launching a request to impeach the president.