Last Friday, in yet another bizarre and possibly illegal move, Argentine President Javier Milei promoted a new cryptocurrency called $LIBRA on his X account (he has since deleted the post). The cryptocurrency skyrocketed and promptly collapsed, leaving the thousands of people who bought $LIBRA with almost nothing. The post now has him in hot water, and the libertarian president faces diverse accusations from political opponents and angry citizens of promoting a pyramid scheme, indulging in insider trading, and committing fraud. Calls for his impeachment grow by the day, with many indicating that the scandal began far earlier than his post last week.
$LIBRA
On Friday, February 14, the President wrote on X, “Liberal Argentina grows!!!! This private project will be dedicated to incentivizing the growth of the Argentine economy and funding small Argentine companies and ventures. The world wants to invest in Argentina. $LIBRA.”
The president’s message triggered an avalanche of over 40,000 purchases of $LIBRA resulting in a spike in value to USD 4 billion.
Despite the initial euphoria, a select group of digital wallets decided to withdraw more or less USD 100 million from the company, which caused panic and the collapse of the cryptocurrency, leaving thousands of enthusiastic buyers with their money practically gone.
Thousands of social media users quickly denounced the alleged scam promoted by none other than the President. According to these allegations, Milei carried out the famous “Pump and Dump,” which consists of artificially inflating the price of an asset (through his public influence) so that other beneficiaries would then sell their assets en masse and thus earn huge amounts of money.
Milei quickly deleted his message from X and published a new statement “A few hours ago I posted a tweet, like so many other infinite times, supporting an alleged private venture to which I have no connection whatsoever. I was not aware of the details of the project and after I became aware of it I decided not to continue disseminating it (that is why I have deleted the tweet).”
In response to the accusations of an alleged scam, Milei said: “To the filthy rats of the political caste who want to take advantage of this situation to harm, I want to say that every day confirms how lowly politicians are, and increases our conviction to kick their asses out.”
Freedom of speech or scam?
According to some legal experts, the Argentine President did not incur any criminal offense by promoting an asset. Rather, it should be proven whether there was bad faith in Milei’s message, computer fraud, abuse of authority, or whether the President benefited in any way from the variations in the $LIBRA exchange rate.
Attorney Jorge Grispo wrote that there are no elements to prove that Milei incurred in the crimes of economic benefit for this case, swindling, computer fraud, or abuse of authority. Milei, according to Grispo, had only exercised his right to freedom of expression and opinion: “To attempt to criminalize the opinion of a president is tantamount to restricting an essential right and sets a dangerous precedent for democracy. Under no circumstances can it be interpreted that the publication of a tweet constitutes a criminal offense.”
However, in the last hours, more than 100 criminal complaints have been lodged in the Argentine judicial system regarding the case of the cryptocurrency promoted by Milei. The Argentine justice system will now have to determine whether President Milei had criminal responsibility in a case that has left thousands of families without savings.
The opposition calls for impeachment
For their part, several groups of the opposition have publicly stated that the $LIBRA case does constitute a criminal offense for which the right-wing libertarian president is responsible. The governor of the Buenos Aires Province Axel Kicillof said, “Javier Milei promoted and was part of a multi-million-dollar scam, by X…before the whole world. Those who enriched themselves in millions of dollars acted in combination with him, although he later said he had been duped… This is unprecedented. It is a typical pyramid scheme with cryptocurrencies and there are many, many people here and in other countries who were deceived.”
In addition to the criminal complaints, the Peronist-Kirchnerist opposition bloc Unión por la Patria has requested the initiation of an impeachment trial.
In an article published in Argmedios, Julián Pilatti echoed that Milei carried out a pyramid scheme. He pointed out that it has been proven that some members of his government had more than seven meetings with operators of the company that manages the cryptocurrency in question. In addition, on January 30, Milei met with US businessman Hayden Mark Davis, who had declared a few hours earlier that he was an advisor to Milei and worked alongside the president’s team on asset tokenization projects in Argentina. The main financier of $LIBRA, according to Davis, is Julian Peh, a Singapore-based businessman, who also met with Milei back in October 2024.
“While Milei already had ties with Novelli (a crypto “trader”) since 2020 and even went so far as to publicize some of his incursions into the crypto world, with Davis and Peh, he held meetings in the Casa Rosada and Olivos. With all these elements, it is difficult to consider that the head of state “was not aware” of the details of the launching of the $LIBRA coin,” Pilatti states.
Lawyer and political leader Juan Grabois agreed with this argument: “The most scandalous fact is that the project developer had met with Milei only a month ago. It was not a coincidence, it was not a confusion, it was not a mistake: it was premeditated. If government officials, friends, or frontmen participated in this looting, we are facing one of the greatest acts of corruption in Argentine history.”
A series of accusations against Milei for swindling
This is not the first time that Milei promoted businesses that soon collapsed and led to accusations against him. In 2021, Milei posted on Instagram “I had the pleasure of meeting the offices of CoinX World and their team. They are revolutionizing the way of investing to help Argentines escape inflation. From now on you can simulate your investment in pesos, dollars, or cryptocurrencies and make a profit. Write to them at CoinX World on my behalf so they can advise you as best they can.”
The case was denounced in 2022 before the National Securities Commission due to the people who blindly trusted the word of the then-congressman.
In an interview with Radio Con Vos after the collapse of CoinX, Javier Milei acknowledged that he received money in exchange for promoting the company, which was later denounced as a possible pyramid scheme. However, Milei maintained that he was not responsible for any scam since all he had issued was an “opinion… [about a] well-structured business.”
For now, it remains to be seen which path the Argentine justice system will take: that of acquitting Milei of the crimes of which he is accused or of conviction. If the allegations are true, it would constitute one of the most shameful events in the economic and political history of the South American country.
