Latest news with #KelsierVentures
Coin Geek
6 days ago
- Business
- Coin Geek
Judge freezes $57 million worth of $LIBRA proceeds
Getting your Trinity Audio player ready... A United States judge has ordered Circle to freeze over $57 million worth of USDC—said to be the proceeds of Argentine President Javier Miliei's $LIBRA pump-and-dump—in a court order made Tuesday. It's the latest episode in a sprawling saga that began with the launch of $LIBRA, a token billed as an investment into the Argentine business. The price of the token ran up rapidly after President Milei publicly endorsed it. The token crashed shortly after, causing a political crisis for Milei and leaving countless investors holding the bag. The freezing order is part of a proposed class action lawsuit filed against Kelsier Ventures, the organization apparently behind the token, and Meteora, the platform used to sell it. The lawsuit also names a group of individuals, including Kelsier CEO Hayden Davis and family members Thomas and Gideon Davis, as defendants. As described in the lawsuit: 'The Defendants marketed $LIBRA as an investment in 'Argentine small businesses' when it was nothing of the sort. They sold the token through a platform, Meteora, that enabled them to manipulate the price of their worthless cryptocurrency so that they could pump it up quickly and then pull out investor money before the price inevitably collapsed.' Filings in support of the freeze order detail the $LIBRA scam. It claims that the defendants recruited Milei and other touters to promote the token upon launch, while withholding most of the supply from the public to make the price easier to manipulate. The proposed plaintiff class representative Omar Hurlock said that almost $58 million worth of USDC—the proceeds of the pump and dump—were in Circle wallets controlled by Davis and that the freezing was necessary to prevent the defendants from dissipating them. 'With a few keystrokes, the Defendants could transfer all of the $LIBRA proceeds held in cryptocurrency, including the contents of the Subject Wallets, beyond the reach of this court and the victims to whom they rightfully belong,' reads the freeze request. Yesterday, the court agreed: it made an order preventing the defendants from accessing the assets. The order also applies to Circle (not a defendant), who must freeze all USDC in the relevant wallets. Who is Hayden Davis, CEO of Kelsier Vetures? The freeze is a preliminary step in what promises to become a large class action lawsuit: Hurlock says the defendants stole more than $280 million via the $LIBRA scam. After the token crashed and criticism over the project mounted, Davis posted a video to Twitter, presenting himself as an advisor to the Argentine president and conceding that 'things didn't go according to plan' with the $LIBRA launch. Though he promises to return 'every single dollar that was collected from fees, or farming or liquidity,' the class action lawsuit accuses Davis and his co-defendants of seeking to avoid responsibility for the $LIBRA fiasco. 'He was an architect of the $LIBRA scam. He had committed other cryptocurrency frauds before and after $LIBRA unravelled. He (and his family member co-defendants, Thomas and Gideon) have been avoiding service. Most importantly, Davis has shown precious little interest in refunding $LIBRA purchasers, commenting 'it's horseshit that people would throw all their life savings into these' and blaming his victims for making a 'completely speculative investment.'' Hayden Davis and Kelsier involved in $MELANIA scam Indeed, details on Kelsier Ventures are scant. Its website is now defunct, but a version of it appears to still be accessible. It does not contain any details on other projects in which Kelsier has been involved. According to Bubblemaps on X, Hayden Davis was also involved in the $MELANIA pump and dump, which similarly saw investors flock to a vaguely politically-affiliated coin only for it to crash dramatically shortly after. Davis remains a free man, lawsuits notwithstanding. However, scrutiny is ramping up: federal prosecutors in Argentina are investigating the incident, and there have been calls for an international arrest warrant to be issued for Davis. There's no indication that has happened—yet. What's next For now, those affected by the $LIBRA scam can be assured that a large portion of its proceeds are now frozen and inaccessible to Davis and his co-defendants. Both the defendants and Circle will have an opportunity to appear before the Judge on June 9, where they can argue why the injunction should not be extended for the duration of the lawsuit. Watch: Bringing the Metanet to life with Teranode title="YouTube video player" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share" referrerpolicy="strict-origin-when-cross-origin" allowfullscreen="">
Forbes
22-04-2025
- Business
- Forbes
$Libra Crypto-Scandal Raises Corruption Allegations Against Javier Milei Administration In Argentina
This is the second part of a two-piece series, read the first piece here Hayden Mark Davis, the mastermind of the $Libra crypto-scandal, and Milei, the participant. The insiders who traded the $LIBRA token with privileged information have been moving funds for at least two months. Phase two of the scam was underway essentially the day after they 'pulled the rug' on the $Libra memecoin. Digital wallets associated to Kelsier Ventures and its now-infamous CEO, Hayden Mark Davis, have been spotted moving millions of dollars across the cryptocurrency ecosystem in what appears to be a series of transactions aimed at covering their tracks and extracting payment. They are also associated to multiple other dodgy crypto operations involving memecoin launches, most notably the $Melania coin. This is one of the beauties of the blockchain, which is ultimately a public ledger where every transaction is visible. Yet that doesn't mean that it is easy to track the ultimate beneficiaries of the funds – whether it is members of the Davis clan, other crypto insiders or Argentine nationals. The usual suspects surface if one looks at the characters who interacted with Davis during his visit to Argentina: Mauricio Novelli, Manuel Terrones Godoy, and Sergio Morales. They were the ones who organized the Tech Forum, a B-level crypto conference sponsored by the government which counted on the presence of President Javier Milei. Novelli, Godoy, and Morales — who has direct ties to Presidential Chief-of-Staff Karina Milei, the head of state's sister — even got Hayden's Kelsier Ventures to cough up cash in order to sponsor their conference, around $500,000, according to some sources, along with other foreign players such as Julien Peh's KIP Protocol and Bartosz Lipinski's Cube Exchange. These three firms are said to have signed differing levels of agreements with the Argentine government through which the future of blockchain, Web3 and artificial intelligence products in the country would be conducted and channeled by these players, all of which are considered to be secondary actors in the space. Hayden's brother Gideon admitted in a podcast interview (that was successively deleted and then uploaded again) that they had advised Cube and managed to get Milei himself to sign a Letter of Intent (LOI) to lead those initiatives on behalf of the government. La Nación's investigative journalist Hugo Alconada Mon reported that Kelsier's deal included an initial payment worth $300,000, followed by monthly installments worth $250,000 for the following six months, with a potential extension for another two-and-a-half years if they secured deals worth $10 million or more for the country. None of these contracts have made it into the public sphere, yet. Hayden and the rest of the involved parties have gone voluntarily mute. After essentially threatening President Milei, by giving him a 48-hour deadline before liquidating the funds, the CEO of Kelsier Ventures asked the head of state's entourage to reach out to him, indicating that someone from Presidential Spokesperson Manuel Adorni's office was expected to get in touch. Indeed, Adorni joined the President in his February trip to the United States to participate in the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC), an unusual invitation if compared to previous trips. Star political advisor Santiago Caputo, the freelancer in charge of the Milei administration's culture wars, was also brought on board. It wasn't clear if he was being shielded from the attacks that emerged in the aftermath of his controversial intervention in Milei's post-$LIbra scripted interview, during which he cut the recording and instructed journalist Jonatan Viale to skip an uncomfortable question regarding the President's legal strategy. That fragment was later leaked, leading some to believe that it was a purposeful blow by Grupo Clarín, the media juggernaut which recently acquired the local arm of Spanish telecoms giant Telefónica, much to the administration's disappointment. From a political perspective, Milei's February trip to Washington was successful in motivating the grassroots followers (in particular his moment in the spotlight when he gave billionaire Elon Musk a pimped-out chainsaw that the head of the US Department of Government Efficiency, or DOGE, exhibited to the crowd). They also secured a shout out from US President Donald Trump, who told Milei paternalistically that he is 'proud' of him. It was substantially more successful than Milei's latest US trip, where he visited Mar-a-Lago to receive an award and supposedly secure another picture with Trump, which ultimately ended in Argentina's Foreign Minister pulling the delegation amid yelling and name calling. Trump is said to have been surprised that Milei left fifteen minutes before his arrival. The suspicion of a secret meeting between Milei and Hayden Mark Davis or his entourage remains, even though official sources denied it to Perfil. Initially, Milei's participation in the $Libra scam was attributed to ignorance but as investigations have progressed, the prime suspect has become Karina, the President's de facto gatekeeper and Morales' political boss. These lines of investigation, along with the movement of funds seen on the blockchain, have been aggressively pursued by a handful of investigative journalists, yet Argentina's Judiciary continues to drag its feet. Yanina Nicoletti, Hayden's initial defense lawyer, had posted on social media criticizing the investigation led by federal prosecutor Eduardo Taiano for failing to investigate those 'truly responsible' for the $Libra scam. Indeed, after initially sitting on the case for a week, Judge María Servini had delegated the investigation to Taiano, who asked the cybersecurity unit of the prosecution to help him preserve any evidence. He's formally investigating whether Milei, Davis, Peh, Novelli, Godoy, and Morales have committed any crime, an investigation that is disputed by Judge Sandra Arroyo Salgado, meaning there's a lot going on behind the scenes. Yet, if evidence had to be tampered with or destroyed, the perpetrators had ample time to do so. Initially, the Milei administration managed to avoid a Senate investigation into the $Libra scandal, while the President had ordered the Investigations Task Force to analyze the case. Interestingly, the taskforce team, which responds to the Executive, was going to be run by María Florencia Zicavo – chief-of-staff to Justice Minister Mariano Cúneo Libarona, the man who Milei initially suggested would defend him in the courts. Suspicions of previously negotiated impunity go further: Prosecutor Taiano's son Federico is employed by Guillermo Francos, Milei's Cabinet chief and Interior minister. It all stays within the circle of trust, it seems. Ultimately, the disjointed opposition in the Chamber of Deputies managed to secure quorum and win a vote forcing an investigative committee to be put together. It will be a political ordeal, that's for sure, but it will remain a thorn in the Milei administration's side. Milei has tried to double down, pushing forth with his administration's agenda. Yet, the loss of political capital has finally hit the libertarians where it hurts. They tried to impose two Supreme Court Justices by decree, only to see the Senate rebuke them. They have been in the eye of the storm for violent repression of street protests. And the peso-dollar exchange rate had begun to get out of control, forcing them to burn through $3 billion in foreign exchange reserves. The recent deal with the International Monetary Fund should give the President some breathing room, as he tries to recover momentum ahead of the midterm elections that will see him confronting not only the Peronist and Kirchnerist segments, but also former President Mauricio Macri, a recent ally. The $Libra crypto-scandal will continue to lurk in the background, popping its ugly face here and there as journalists, crypto-sleuths, or official investigators manage to push the case forward. In the meantime, Milei will try to ignore it as Davis continues to operate in the shadows, under the tacit protection of the Trump administration's push for deregulation of crypto. This piece was originally published in the Buenos Aires Times, Argentina's only English-language newspaper.
Yahoo
19-02-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Argentine President Javier Milei endorsed a memecoin that lost $4 billion in hours. Now a judge is investigating him for fraud
Javier Milei, the president of Argentina, became the most recent politician to endorse a memecoin. Milei, a brash-talking populist, followed in the footsteps of President Donald Trump, who launched his own Bitcoin, the world's largest cryptocurrency, was designed to be a digital rival to the dollar. Ether, the world's second-largest cryptocurrency, facilitates so-called decentralized applications like lending products and digital artwork. In contrast, Dogecoin, the largest memecoin by market capitalization, was launched as a joke. In 2013, two developers made the token to riff off Doge, a popular online meme that features a Shiba Inu, a Japanese dog breed. Since then, memecoins have flooded crypto. Celebrities like Caitlyn Jenner have launched their own tokens, whose prices are propelled by the cryptocurrencies' associations with recognizable names. And Melania Trump, the first lady, also launched her own memecoin, MELANIA, the same week as her husband. Most tokens—including both Trump tokens—tend to crash in price after early holders sell to eager investors buying up the cryptocurrencies on the launch hype. Late Friday night, Milei wrote in a since-deleted post that the LIBRA token, launched the same day, was designed to raise money for small and midsize businesses. 'The world wants to invest in Argentina,' he wrote, according to a screenshot of the post. He then directed his followers to go to a website to buy the token, whose name roughly translates to the 'Long Live Liberty Project,' which is 'driving the future of freedom and growth,' according to the website. About 20 minutes before Milei's post, insiders readied themselves to sell the token, according to TRM Labs, a crypto analytics firm. Then, after Milei endorsed the memecoin, the insiders gradually cashed out their position into Solana, another less volatile cryptocurrency. 'It is a pretty huge scandal within crypto,' Nicolas Vaiman, the CEO and cofounder of the crypto analytics firm Bubblemaps, said in an interview. 'Everybody's trying to find who's responsible.' There's a tangled web of finger-pointing about who was and wasn't part of LIBRA's launch. Milei's representatives said in a lengthy post on X that KIP Protocol, which builds AI and crypto infrastructure, was behind the memecoin's launch. KIP Protocol said it wasn't behind the token's launch in a post on X, and instead pointed to Kelsier Ventures, a crypto family office run out of Dubai. Hayden Davis, the CEO of Kelsier Ventures, then admitted to being behind the token launch on X. 'I am indeed Javier Milei's advisor,' he said. However, he said he was 'only a part of what happened to LIBRA' and that 'a lot of people that have been involved with this launch have gone silent or are nowhere to be found.' Davis then said in an interview with Stephen Findeisen, a popular YouTuber who goes by Coffeezilla, that Mauricio Novelli and Manuel Godoy, founders of an Argentinian tech conference, were also involved. Davis also admitted to cashing out $100 million shortly after the memecoin's launch. Milei's representatives, KIP Protocol, Kelsier Ventures, Novelli, and Godoy did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Milei's memecoin saga has dominated headlines in Argentina. On Monday, Argentina's stock market plummeted, as its main stock index dropped 5.6% when markets opened. Milei has since tried to distance himself from the memecoin's launch in subsequent statements. His representatives said in the X post that Milei wasn't involved in the cryptocurrency's development and he had only endorsed it. They added that after he saw the token's price collapse, he decided to delete his posts. 'I have nothing to hide,' Milei said in an interview on an Argentine talk show on Monday. Still, after lawyers in Argentina, led by Milei political opponent Claudio Lozano, filed more than 100 fraud complaints against the president, an Argentine judge opened up an investigation into the allegations against the president, according to the Associated Press. Some political opponents even called for his impeachment. Milei, though, said on the talk show he acted 'in good faith.' This story was originally featured on
Yahoo
18-02-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Libra Token's Co-Creator Claimed He Paid Argentinian President Milei's Sister
A key player behind the Libra token bragged about buying access to Argentine President Javier Milei's inner circle months before the memecoin's scandalous launch and crash. In text messages reviewed by CoinDesk, Hayden Davis, CEO of Kelsier Ventures, claimed he could "control" Milei because of payments he had been making to Karina Milei, a powerful figure in Milei's government, not to mention the president's sister. "I control that n****," Davis claimed in text messages from mid-December, adding, "I send $$ to his sister and he signs whatever I say and does what I want." Karina Milei's office did not respond to a request for comment. Davis did not respond to multiple requests for comment. It was unclear if any money was exchanged between Davis and Milei's inner circle in advance of Libra's launch. Davis' December claims add a new dimension to an anti-corruption probe that Argentina's presidential office has opened into Javier Milei, who, on Feb. 15, brought attention to the doomed Libra crypto as a novel way to fund small businesses in that country. But the biggest winner from the Solana-based memecoin's launch was Davis and Kelsier Ventures. Wallets controlled by the entities netted over $100 million in Libra's early hours, when it soared to $5 and then crashed over 95%, wiping out millions of dollars of speculative investments. Opposition leaders in Argentina have threatened to call for an impeachment trial over the incident, which the local press has coined, "critpogate." The scandal is weighing on Argentina's stock market and pushed Milei into "damage control," said one observer of the country's crypto space. In the December text messages, Davis claimed he could get Milei to promote ventures on social media. Milei's tweet about Libra two months later fueled its rise. When he deleted the tweet after just five hours – and after on-chain sleuths had discovered evidence of shady dealings – Libra's price had already crashed.
