A New York-based law firm has put out a call for victims of the Libra (LIBRA) meme coin scandal—which involved Argentine President Javier Milei—to step forward ahead of a potential lawsuit against the creators and supporters of the Solana-based token.
The Treanor Law Firm has been investigating the controversial Argentina-linked token since the high-profile February launch, and believes there may be validity to allegations of fraud, market manipulation, and racketeering. Connecting with Libra investors is the next step in this investigation ahead of any future lawsuit that may follow.
The Viva La Libertad Project and its LIBRA token launched on February 14, branded as a project intended to boost the Argentinian economy as it looked to fund small businesses. This helped the Solana token garner promotion from the country’s President Javier Milei, adding further legitimacy to the project as it soared to a $1.17 billion market cap.
But this all came tumbling down, with the token’s price crashing 97% in the day that followed as Milei deleted his X post and claimed to have no knowledge of the token’s origins.
“We’ve been looking at this from the beginning,” Treanor Law Firm Managing Principal Tim Treanor told Decrypt. “But there are three areas of inquiry that I think are the most interesting. One of them is the representations that were made that may have induced investors to purchase the Libra coin.”
President Milei promoted the token on his X account, in a since-removed post, claiming that the “private project” would be “dedicated to encouraging the growth of the Argentine economy by funding small Argentine businesses and startups.” This vision has not yet played out.
Soon after the launch, the President was hit with fraud charges in Argentina over his involvement. Milei later denied these allegations, claiming that he acted in “good faith” and claimed to have no prior knowledge about the project before sharing it with millions of followers.
At the helm was Kelsier Venture CEO Hayden Davis, who pitched the project to Milei during a January meeting, a statement by the official President of Argentina X account claimed. David said that Mauricio Novelli and Manuel Godoy of Tech Forum Argentina were also involved in the project, but their exact role is unclear.
Treanor would not name any individual or organization that is being considered as part of the investigation, due to it being in a preliminary phase.
“Separately, there’s a whole other set of questions around the actual sale and trading of the coin,” Treanor explained, “Were coins sniped? Were the pretenses under which people purchased and traded in the coin truthful and consistent with people’s expectations? Or was there manipulation?”
In an interview with prominent YouTube sleuth Coffeezilla, Davis openly admitted to “sniping” LIBRA, which references a method of quickly purchasing a token immediately after launch, as he claimed it was done to deter other snipers.
Treanor explained that the firm needs to talk to investors to understand where most victims fall between these two allegations of fraud and market manipulation. On one hand, some buyers may have been “playing the game” of meme coin trading and are only concerned about the market manipulation allegations.
But others may have genuinely believed that the token would be used as a force for good in Argentina.
“It’s important for us to try to connect with more people who lost money and to find out what their motivations were,” Treanor told Decrypt.
Treanor has been a lawyer for almost 30 years, including over 16 years at major law firm Sidley Austin LLP—which once employed former President Barack Obama and current Vice President JD Vance. During this time, Treanor represented soccer association Concacaf and its affected members to recover $201 million worth of funds that were involved in corruption schemes.
Treanor said he founded his own law firm to bring his expertise in financial crime to crypto, fintech, and traditional finance. He believes that there are valid use cases for crypto, but there has been notable malicious activity that is “not good for anybody”—and hopes to bring change to the industry.
The firm’s investigation into Libra thus far has determined that over 75,000 wallets lost money on the token, totaling over $280 million worth of losses. But this might be just the tip of the iceberg.
As the third area of interest, the firm is investigating racketeering violations that suggest a pattern of criminal behavior performed by an individual or group. While this is a criminal statute, it contains a provision that allows victims to bring forward a civil claim to potentially win three times the damages.
The LIBRA launch was tied back to the launch of MELANIA—the official meme coin of U.S. First Lady Melania Trump—by analytics company Bubblemaps using on-chain data. This opened the public’s eyes to the potential influence that Kelsier and other Libra actors may have had within our projects.
“Do we have a group here that was operating against the law in a broader sense, and did that include other coins?” Treanor said. “There have been allegations of bribery, and other things that aren’t just fraud allegations.”
“A lot of the facts are out there,” he added. “Whether it’s credible or not, maybe a court will decide that someday.”
Edited by Andrew Hayward
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