The Argentine President, Javier Milei, has found himself at the center of controversy once again after promoting $ Libra, a cryptocurrency with possible fraudulent links. Four political leaders filed a complaint against the president last Sunday, accusing him of “illegal association”, “scams”, and “breach of the duties of a public official” following an incident. Milei and some members of his cabinet will also be investigated by the Anti-Corruption Office (OA) from Argentina at its own request to clarify if there was any “improper behavior.”
“I have no link”
It was on a Friday night when the Argentine president took to his X account to promote the cryptocurrency, which he claimed would stimulate the economy and contribute to the growth of small businesses. As a result, the value of $ Libra shot up over a brief period, with its price going from 0.3 cents to $5.54 before collapsing due to fears that the cryptocurrency was a scam. A few hours later, Milei chose to erase the publication, stating, “A few hours ago I published a tweet, like so many other infinite times, supporting an alleged private entrepreneurship of which obviously I have no link.” He further explained that he was not internalized with the details of the project and decided not to continue disseminating it. This explanation, however, has failed to calm the mood of the thousands of people who made the investment, or the opposition, who consider that with his words, the Argentine president could have been a participant in a millionaire scam.
What is behind $ Libra?
$ LIBRA is a cryptocurrency created by the ‘Liva La Libertad’ project, promoted by the Panamanian company Kip Network Inc. According to their website, their mission is to “promote the Argentine economy by financing small local projects and businesses.” The currency would come into play to “channel financing efficiently and decentralized.” Currently, it has a value of 0.0006 cents, and experts believe that its launch could correspond to a maneuver known as ‘rug pull’ or ‘carpet pull’, a fraud model by which cryptocurrency developers seek to attract investors, only to leave the project with the funds raised.
An idea that seems to support this theory is the financial report of the American firm Kobbesi Letter, collected by EFE, which reveals that when the currency was constituted, the initial investors of $ LIBRA began withdrawing money with profits of $87.7 million, and “in five hours, more than $4.4 billion in market capitalization were erased.”
There were two meetings
In the coming weeks, it will be up to the Argentine Justice to elucidate Javier Milei’s relationship with the project. The presidential office has assured that the first meeting between the representatives of The KIP Protocol company, linked to the currency, and the Argentine president took place in October. At the meeting, they would have presented the idea of developing a project under the name “Long live freedom”, through which the cryptocurrency was created. On January 30, the second meeting between Milei and the project members took place at Casa Rosada.
As EFE points out, from the Government Palace of Argentina, responsibilities have been denied, claiming that the publications where $ Libra is promoted were made through the president’s personal accounts, but that he did not “participate in any instance of the development of cryptocurrency.”