President Javier Milei has been accused by multiple Argentine lawyers of committing fraud.
The instance that the complaints recognize is Milei’s promotion of a cryptocurrency known as $LIBRA.
The judge selection has taken place amidst Milei’s claims that his actions were not of ill intent.
Milei posted the coin on X, formerly known as Twitter, with a statement about its usefulness for “economic growth.” He aimed his statements toward small businesses, claiming that the coin would bolster their growth.
He deleted the post promoting $LIBRA a few hours after his initial post.
The coin was developed independent from Milei, but it could be accessed by visiting a website named in reference to a common phrase that he used in his messages and speeches, “Viva la libertad.” The specific type of fraud that prosecuting attorneys are accusing Milei of is colloquially referred to as a “rug pull,” a developer releases a token to entice investors only to abandon it when the token is no longer valuable. The coin that Milei advertised crashed “within hours of its launch.”
Plaintiff and lawyer, Jonatan Baldiviezo, claimed that Milei violated the Public Ethics Law on top of the fraud charges. Milei shared on X that he was not aware of the currency’s development and accused his political adversaries of exploiting the mistake.
The president’s office made a statement denying Milei’s involvement, and subsequent guilt, in the development of the coin. The office said, “The president shared a post on his personal accounts announcing the launch of KIP Protocol’s project, as he does daily with many entrepreneurs who wish to launch projects in Argentina to create jobs and attract investments.”
University of Louisiana at Lafayette student Taylor Prados, a freshman who will continue his pursuit of a degree in environmental science after a hiatus to participate in basic training, weighed in on the conversation.
He claimed to “have a decent understanding of cryptocurrency and a very good understanding of cryptocurrency scams.”
Prados provided his perspective on the implications of Milei being accused of participating in a scam. “I think that as the President of Argentina, one of Milei’s biggest responsibilities is to keep the people of his country safe,” he said.
“By publicly promoting a cryptocurrency, Milei allowed ill-intentioned actors to take advantage of his influence over people that align with him politically and who may make decisions based off of his endorsements. Even if it wasn’t his intention to scam people that would’ve invested into crypto because of his endorsement, he should’ve taken into account his influence and the recent ‘trend’ of crypto scams before making his tweet,” he continued.
Prados expressed a positive view of the precedent that Milei’s possible conviction could set for global politics, saying that, “World leaders are not immune from their justice system and still have to answer for their crimes.”
As for future application of digital currencies, Prados provided his concerns toward its development.
He noted his worry that the attempt to digitize currency allows politicians to gain more power over their citizens. He elaborated on this point, stating, “Without tangible currency that the people of a country can handle, the government will be able to have more direct control over each individual that they hold power over.” This scandal comes as Milei seeks election allies. According to Reuters, one pollster’s data found that 53.1% of Argentines did not trust the president over the scandal.
Another pollster’s data found that 46.6% of poll respondents held a negative view of Milei after the scandal compared to 36.2% beforehand.
The concern that many people have, currently, with the scandal is how it will affect Milei’s performance in the next election.
Polling shows that it may have a damaging impact when voting, but the statistics may not count toward how Argentines will vote.