Argentine judge investigates fraud case against President Milei over crypto promotion

Judge in Argentina assigned to investigate fraud allegations against President Milei for promoting cryptocurrency that quickly lost value.

A judge in Argentina was selected Monday (February 17, 2025) to investigate allegations of fraud against President Javier Mr. Milei for his brief promotion of a cryptocurrency whose value collapsed within hours of its launch last week. Mr. Milei distanced himself from the scandal and said he acted in good faith.

Mr. Milei and his office denied involvement with creators of the $LIBRA cryptocurrency, saying he initially drew attention to it Friday as an entrepreneurial project that might benefit Argentina but learned more about it later and then withdrew his support.

Lawyers in Argentina filed fraud complaints against the libertarian President on Sunday. The case was assigned Monday to Judge María Servini, head of Federal Court No. 1 in Buenos Aires. She doesn’t have a deadline to finish investigating the allegations.

In a tweet Friday evening that coincided with the launch of the $LIBRA crypto coin, Mr.. Milei said that it was aimed at “encouraging economic growth by funding small businesses and startups.”

It enjoyed a brief spike in value above $4 billion in market capitalization, although its value began to decline amid comments of critics that it could be a scam. Milei deleted the post a few hours later as the value of the cryptocurrency was collapsing in a downturn that caused millions of dollars in losses to many of its new investors.

The coin, developed by KIP Protocol and Hayden Davis, could be obtained by accessing a link that directed users to a website called vivalalibertadproject.com, referring to the well-known phrase “Viva la libertad!” that Mr. Milei uses to close speeches and messages on his social media.

The President's office said in a statement that Mr. Milei was not involved in any stage of the cryptocurrency’s development and decided to remove his post to avoid speculation and limit further exposure, following the public reaction to the project’s launch.