Argentine President May Be Impeached Over LIBRA Scandal

The Argentine government has officially opened an investigation into the LIBRA memento after President Javier Milei unexpectedly promoted the token on social media, causing its value to skyrocket and then plummeting.

The Argentine government announced that President Milei had directed the Anti-Corruption Office (OA) to open an immediate investigation to determine if there was any misconduct on the part of government members, including the president.

In addition, a special investigative force under the president's office was also established, to carry out an “urgent investigation into the launch of the LIBRA token, together with all companies and individuals involved.”

Javier Smaldone, a prominent technology expert and critic of Ponzi schemes, called it an “international scam.” He told AFP that the amount profited from LIBRA amounted to about $107 million, possibly even more.

It began on February 14, when Milei posted on social network X that LIBRA would help boost Argentina's economy, support small businesses and attract international investment.

This statement immediately created a strong wave of interest in the token, pushing its value up. However, just hours later, the market began to panic as a warning emerged from the community on X, claiming that LIBRA was showing signs of a “rug pull,” as developers attracted capital from investors and then abruptly pulled out. This caused the value of LIBRA to rapidly plummet, causing massive losses to those who invested in the token.

Just 5 hours after the post, Milei deleted the post on his personal account, while denying that it was directly related to LIBRA. Soon after, he posted a new post revealing that he did not know the details of the project.

“After learning more, I decided not to continue promoting it, so I deleted the post.” By the evening of February 15, the Argentine government officially announced the opening of a comprehensive investigation to clarify the case.

The incident quickly became the focus of political controversy. Opposition parties called it an unprecedented scandal, while former President Cristina Fernández de Kirchner alleged that thousands of people lost millions of dollars, while others profited from inside information. An opposition political group also vowed to push for Congress to set up its own investigative committee on LIBRA.

In an effort to clear up any doubts, the government acknowledged that President Milei had two meetings with the LIBRA development team, one in October 2023 and one in January 2024, but insisted he had no role in the token development process. The president's office also stressed that Milei regularly promotes startups and LIBRA is no exception.

While the investigation is still ongoing, many investors have suffered heavy losses. Agustín Pantano, a 28-year-old lawyer who supports Mr. Milei, admitted to buying LIBRA shortly after the president's post in the hope of making a quick profit.

However, only a few hours later, when he checked his phone at 1am, he discovered that he had lost 90% of his investment of about $150.

The incident not only raised concerns about the economic policies of the Milei administration, but also compared him to U.S. President Donald Trump, who also promoted a memento named Trump last month, with a similar scenario of the token rising and falling.

The Argentine government is committed to a thorough investigation into the incident and to find out if there has been any profiteering from within the government.