Milei is already facing impeachment requests and lawsuits in $LIBRA crypto scandal #CriptoNews

Members of Argentina’s opposition and civil society filed a flurry of lawsuits against President Javier Milei and called for his impeachment over the weekend, as the scandal over his support for the $Libra cryptocurrency continued to unfold.

On Friday evening, Milei posted on social media supporting a cryptocurrency known as $Libra, which was linked to a private project called Long live freedom (Long Live Freedom) supposedly intended to finance small Argentine companies. Hours later, he erased the publication.

The price of a $Libra token spiked after his post, before nosediving. The president eventually wrote another post stating that he had deleted the previous one because he was not aware of the particulars of the project.

Crypto experts have said that the market movements are characteristic of a “rug pull” scam, in which a cryptocurrency is rapidly inflated before crashing, while insiders make off with the profits.

“Milei’s participation in the crime of crypto fraud is extremely serious. It’s a scandal without precedent. Our bloc of national deputies has decided to move forward with presenting an impeachment request against the President of the Nation,” read an X post by the Peronist Unión por la Patria opposition’s Lower House bloc.

Details of the impeachment request are to be announced on Monday afternoon.

Tech Forum Buenos Aires

Lawyers from the Right to the City Observatory think tank and the economist Claudio Lozano reported Milei for criminal association, fraud, and dereliction of duty on Saturday. Their report also accused Martín Menem, president of the Chamber of Deputies; libertarian influencer Daniel Parisini; and far-right author Agustín Laje. It likewise named Hayden Mark Davis of Kelsier Ventures, which launched the project, and Julian Peh, chief executive officer of KIP Network and KIP Protocol, which was involved in its development.

In the report, which the Herald has seen, they state that Milei met with Peh in October at the TechForum Buenos Aires event, months before they launched the project and the president shared it. Milei’s post included a link to the project’s website and $Libra’s contract address, which identifies the token so that users can purchase it.

Screenshots included in the report show that public officials including Menem and libertarian deputy José Luis Espert reposted Milei’s publication, while Laje replied voicing his support.

In their report, the lawyers dispute Milei’s subsequent claims that he was not aware of the project’s details. They highlight that the president made his post just three minutes after $Libra was launched, timing that indicates he knew it was coming before it was announced. They also argue that, as an economist, it is unlikely that he did not understand the details of the project he was sharing.

Warring statements

In a lengthy statement published late Saturday night, Argentina’s presidential communications team confirmed that Milei met with KIP Protocol representatives in Argentina, who told him of their intent to develop a financing project called Long live freedom to fund private companies using blockchain technology. They state that the meeting was reported in the Register of Public Hearings and attended by Milei and Peh, as well as presidential spokesperson Manuel Adorni and Mauricio Novelli.

KIP Protocol disputed several of the claims made in a statement published early on Monday. They state that Milei and Peh spoke for around 30 minutes, but add: “There was no discussion or mention of any  specific initiatives including the project (“Viva la Libertad”) and launching any tokens. KIP Protocol is not in the business of helping organizations launch tokens.  We are a technical AI solutions company focused on deploying AI infrastructure, it is what our business centers around and it would be unusual to be pitching anything else.”

KIP also said that Novelli is a Tech Forum organizer, not a KIP representative, as the government statement stated.

The criminal complaint also highlighted that Milei knows and has met with Hayden Mark Davis, chief executive officer of Kelsier, which was also involved in creating and promoting $Libra.

Partners?

The presidential team’s statement confirmed a meeting between Milei and Davis on January 30, but stated that he had no connection with the Argentine government and had been presented by KIP Protocol as one of their partners. KIP Protocol claimed that they had no knowledge of the January 30 meeting and never claimed that he was a partner.

Davis posted a video to social media on Sunday, after the lawyers filed their report and the statement was published, commenting on the scandal. “I am, indeed, Javier Milei’s adviser,” he said. “I am working with him and his team on much bigger tokenization, and really cool stuff in Argentina, and I absolutely back him.” He then promised to “inject” the money from $Libra back into the project “within the next 24-48 hours.”

The complaint filed against Milei also notes that in 2021, while he was a deputy, he received payment to promote a crypto project called CoinX, which appeared to be a Ponzi scheme. He was reported to the authorities for his involvement in the project.

In Argentina, it is illegal for elected officials to advertise private ventures.

Crypto criminal complaints

According to the presidency statement, Milei has called on Argentina’s Anticorruption Office to investigate whether there was improper conduct. He has also created a taskforce within the presidency to investigate the circumstances around $Libra’s launch.

Criminal complaints against Milei were also filed by lawyer Agustín Rómbola, of the Radical Civic Union party, for fraud, dealings incompatible with public office, price manipulation, and financial crimes.

“Party’s over. See you in court,” he wrote in an X post accompanying a screenshot of his complaint.

A flurry of other complaints have been filed.

The Observatory’s report. The prosecutor will be Eduardo Taiano.