Argentinian president Javier Milei, targeted by several complaints after having relayed on X a cryptocurrency which then collapsed, denied Monday, February 17, having “promoted” anything, saying to having “acted in good faith”. “I did not recommend, I did not promote, I broadcast” a message on a digital currency, hammered the Argentine president on TN channel. He was accused of “crypto-arnaque” by the peronist opposition (center-left) which intends to file in parliament a procedure leading to a dismissal.
Javier Milei, who defined himself on TN as a “fanatic techno-optical”, explained that he wanted to give visibility to a project likely to finance tech SMEs. Transactions then the collapse of the cryptocurrency Friday evening “are a problem between (people) private,” said the head of state, saying “having nothing to hide”, or fear an investigation.
He said that operators-more than 5,000 according to him, but “many bots”-who made transactions on the cryptocurrency $ Libra that evening are “traders” betting on speculative products, which ” knew very well what was the risk “.
More than $ 4 billion in losses
The ultra -liberal Milei, in power for 14 months, has faced for three days a delicate episode of his presidency. After having put forward Friday evening a cryptocurrency, he retracted. Meanwhile the $ Libra had been the subject of tens of thousands of transactions, before collapsing, generating for a handful of operators gains of approximately $ 100 million, according to experts. “If you go to the casino and lose money, what can you complain if you knew there were these risks?”, He quipped on the TN channel.
According to one of the complaints filed on Monday by an NGO, the City Law Observatory, operations around the $ Libra would have “affected more than 40,000 people with losses of more than $ 4 billion”. An Argentine Federal Judge and a prosecutor were responsible for centralizing a wave of complaints -more than a hundred, according to the media.
An investigation request was also sent to the United States Ministry of Justice by a law firm representing around forty investors, “mainly Argentinian”, for “massive fraud of the Rug Pull type (carpet draw, editor’s note), committed on several jurisdictions, and also affected Americans, “according to the missive.
The Argentine presidency announced on Saturday seize the anti -corruption office to identify a possible “inappropriate conduct of a member of the government, including the president”. While ensuring that Javier Milei “did not in any case participate in the development” of the $ Libra, the presidency also announced a separate survey on the launch of this cryptocurrency “and all the companies or people involved”.
Improbable dismissal
Javier Milei, however, admitted Monday evening that he had taken “a slap” with the $ Libra episode, and held an “interesting lesson”: he will have to raise the walls “around him, he said, he said, he said To no longer be so easily accessible, a reference apparent to High-Tech entrepreneurs behind the $ Libra project.
On the political level, a procedure with a view to a possible dismissal seems highly improbable: its launch would require a majority of two thirds of the lower chamber. “Zero luck,” said political scientist Carlos German for AFP. Already, the pro (right) of ex-president Mauricio Macri (2015-2019), the third force in the Parliament and ally of the party of Javier Milei, said he was “not favorable to a dismissal”. Other parties have rather claimed a parliamentary commission of inquiry.
In terms of image, the impact is more uncertain. “The company continues to support the president on his central theme to combat inflation”, at the lowest for four years, analyzes Carlos Germano. However, the case “affects its credibility […]opened a breach “. A sign of a certain nervousness, the Buenos Aires Stock Exchange ended on Monday down 5.58 %, with up to 8 % decline for certain shares.
Javier Milei is scheduled to go to the United States on Wednesday evening, the presidency said last Friday, Voyage coinciding with the high mass of the American conservatives CPAC in Washington, from February 19 to 22. But without at this point of precision on its program.