"Milei's LIBRA Crypto Scandal: Argentine President Faces Fraud Charges After Token's Spectacular Crash"

Argentine President Javier Milei is facing fraud charges related to his promotion of the LIBRA cryptocurrency. The token, which soared above a $4 billion market cap minutes after its launch on Friday, crashed spectacularly just hours later.

The charges were filed in an Argentine criminal court on Sunday by attorneys and political opponents of Milei, including former head of the Argentine Central Bank Claudio Lozano. The complaint alleges that the team behind the LIBRA cryptocurrency, Kelsier Ventures and its CEO Hayden Davis, committed "an indeterminate number of frauds" with Milei's involvement.

Jonatan Baldiviezo, a lawyer and one of the plaintiffs, told the Associated Press that Milei's actions were essential to the crime of fraud committed within the illicit association.

Milei originally promoted the LIBRA token on his X account late Friday, along with a link to the Viva La Libertad Project website. He claimed that the project would be dedicated to encouraging the growth of the Argentine economy by funding small Argentine businesses and startups.

The Argentine president's post sent shockwaves across the crypto industry, reminiscent of US President Donald Trump's surprise meme coin launch in late December. Traders and observers alike attempted to determine the legitimacy of the project and Milei's post.

Crypto analytics firms such as Bubblemaps and Chainalysis raised alarms just after LIBRA's launch, noting several red flags with the project. Bubblemaps revealed that 82% of the supply of the LIBRA token was held by a single cluster of wallets, indicating that a single individual or a group of associated individuals controlled the vast majority of the supply.

As concerns mounted, traders sold off their positions, and the token crashed by 89% in value. Bubblemaps claimed that the team behind the project "cashed out," removing some $87 million in USDC and SOL, the native token of the Solana network, from liquidity pools that serviced the token.

President Milei deleted his original post and followed up with another disavowing the project. He claimed that he was not informed of the project's details and decided not to continue promoting it after learning about them.

The mea culpa was apparently not enough to satisfy the group of attorneys now seeking to hold Milei accountable for his actions. An