Melania Trump, Javier Milei Used as ‘Props’ for Meme Coin Fraud, Lawsuit Alleges

A brand new class motion lawsuit portrays Meteora founder Benjamin Chow because the mastermind behind the notorious Libra AndMelania meme cash, claiming that the notable public figures – First Girl Melania Trump and Argentine President Javier Milei – who promoted them aren’t accountable for the alleged “crimes” related to the “rip-off tokens.”

The claims come courtesy of the newest paperwork Hurlock v. Kelsier Venturesa fraud and racketeering class motion lawsuit itemizing Meteora, Chow and others as defendants. The criticism particularly focuses on the launch of 5 tokens, with the Milei-promoted LIBRA and the Trump-linked MELANIA being essentially the most outstanding of the bunch.

“Defendants derived credibility from real-world figures or themes – such because the ‘official Melania Trump’ coin (MELANIA), [and] the ‘Argentine revival’ coin (LIBRA) tied to it President Javier Milei,” the criticism reads. “These faces and types had been used as props to legitimize what was successfully a coordinated liquidity lure. Plaintiffs don’t allege that these public figures had been responsible; they had been merely the backdrop for against the law masterminded by Meteora and Kelsier.”

The First Girl promoted a Solana meme coin that includes her personal title in January — simply two days after her husband, President Trump, launched his official token. The MELANIA coin rose rapidly earlier crashed 99% within the following months because the meme coin crew quietly dumped tokens.

Equally, Argentinian President Milei promoted the LIBRA crypto tokenthat was branded as a device to finance small Argentinian companies. It additionally rose in worth earlier than rapidly dropping 90% inside hours – and Milei quickly deleted his posts. On-chain analytics firm Bubble playing cards discovered one connection between the wallets used to launch MELANIA and LIBRA, ensuing within the aforementioned class motion lawsuit.

Reasonably than blaming these notable figures, prosecutors declare Chow “was on the middle of the enterprise.” The submitting alleges that Meteora’s automated market maker enterprise was utterly separate from Chow’s “model, infrastructure and code base” to run “pump-and-dump” tokens, which additionally operated underneath the title Meteora.

“Chow gathered a small group of trusted collaborators: Ng Ming Yeow (“Ming”), co-founder of Meteora and Jupiter; and the Davis household, buying and selling by way of Kelsier Ventures (Hayden, Charles, and Gideon Davis) to hold out the fraud,” the criticism states. “Collectively, they launched and marketed a minimum of 15 tokens that adopted an similar blueprint; this criticism describes 5.”

Hayden Davis, the CEO of Kelsier Ventures, discovered himself on the middle of the debacle after he… flood of interviews after the collapse of LIBRA. Nonetheless, the submitting now claims that Davis “carried out a minimum of 15 token launches at Chow’s path” and that the broader Kelsier agency labored “underneath Chow’s path.” [Chow’s] directions.”

Chow has resigned from Meteora in February when particulars of the meme coin launch emerged. Chow did not reply Declutter‘s request for touch upon X or Telegram.

When Declutter requested the regulation agency representing the plaintiffs, Burwick Regulation, why it believes Chow was central to the operation, the agency emphasised personal Telegram screenshots from Davis who defined that he was working underneath Chow’s command.

Nonetheless, in August a choose has ordered that $57.6 million in USDC linked to the Libra meme coin must be unfrozen as a result of the choose was “skeptical” that prosecutors would succeed of their case.

Kelsier Ventures didn’t reply Declutter‘s request for remark.