Argentina charges president Javier Milei with fraud over crypto rug pull

Argentin’s president Javier Milei is now facing criminal fraud charges for his meme coin $LIBRA that collapsed within hours, in a classic rug pull. Lawyers Jonatan Baldiviezo, Marcos Zelaya, María Eva Koutsovitis, and Claudio Lozano filed the case on Sunday, accusing Javier of playing a central role in a “rug pull” that misled the public and resulted in huge financial losses.

Javier promoted $LIBRA on Friday via X (formerly Twitter), and his post drew immediate attention, triggering massive investments. But just hours later, he deleted the post, sending $LIBRA’s price into freefall, and investors watching the market on Dexscreener saw their holdings obliterated.

According to the plaintiffs, Javier’s actions amounted to fraud and a violation of Argentina’s Public Ethics Law. Baldiviezo, speaking to The Associated Press, said, “Within this illicit association, the crime of fraud was committed, in which the president’s actions were essential.” The lawsuit accuses Javier of using his position and influence to pump up a financial asset, only to ditch it without warning, leaving unsuspecting investors in the dust.

The Presidential Office, in a statement on Saturday, denied any wrongdoing, insisting that Javier was never involved in $LIBRA’s creation, that his post was made in good faith to support entrepreneurial projects but was removed to prevent speculation.

Javier himself responded on X, writing, “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 also accused his political opponents of trying to exploit the controversy to undermine him by the Opposition party.

Despite his denial, documents and online records confirm that Javier and members of his administration had met with representatives of KIP Protocol, the team behind $LIBRA, before its launch. The Anti-Corruption Office, which operates under the Executive Branch, has opened an internal investigation.

In a statement, the Presidential Office said, “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.”

KIP Protocol, Jupiter Exchange, and Hayden Davis react

Hayden Davis, the CEO of KIP Protocol, publicly blamed Javier Milei for $LIBRA’s downfall. In a video statement released on Saturday, Hayden said, “Despite prior commitments, Javier and his team unexpectedly changed their position, withdrawing their support and deleting all previous posts on social media.”

Meanwhile, crypto exchange Jupiter Exchange acknowledged that some of its team members knew about $LIBRA’s launch before Javier’s tweet. In a statement, Jupiter admitted, “A few members of the Jupiter team knew that there would be, at some point, a token project associated with Argentine President Javier Milei. We learned of this ~2 weeks ago directly from Kelsier Ventures.”

Jupiter, however, denied any insider trading and said the coin had already hit a $1.5 billion market cap before receiving the “Verified” tag on their platform. “LIBRA did not get the ‘Verified’ icon in our default token search until roughly one hour after launch,” they said.

Despite the denial, the exchange confirmed that dozens of imposter tokens flooded the market immediately after $LIBRA’s launch, making it easy for traders to buy the wrong token by mistake. “We take allegations of insider trading extremely seriously. If you have evidence of Jupiter employees leaking information or otherwise sniping, please reach out directly. If we discover any team members acted on non-public information, we will take quick and decisive action.”

$100 million in LIBRA funds still under Hayden’ control

Despite the massive price collapse, Hayden Hayden still controls $100 million in LIBRA treasury funds. He announced that he would reinvest and burn all repurchased tokens, insisting that he remains committed to transparency.

“Unless a more viable alternative is presented, I intend to begin the process of executing on this plan within the next 48 hours,” Hayden said. He also denied any involvement in fraud, placing the blame squarely on Javier for the coin’s catastrophic crash.

Hayden added, “Javier’s associates had secured his public support at launch and had assured me that his continued backing was guaranteed throughout the launch.” He claimed that Javier’s sudden reversal shattered investor confidence and led to the price collapse.

While the legal battle intensifies, investors are left with millions in losses, the Argentine government faces mounting scrutiny, and Javier Milei is now at the center of one of the biggest crypto scandals in history.

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