Top Argentine presidential candidate Javier Milei promoted CoinX, a cryptocurrency investment platform with enormous returns guaranteed to subscribers, in an Instagram post to his 1.3 million followers last year. The oddball Bitcoiner running for president is being sued for allegedly endorsing a cryptocurrency Ponzi scheme.
The platform, which shut down in June, boasted of using AI, bots, and expert traders to automate trades for investors and make them a tonne of money. It had a sizable social media following.
Milei went to their Buenos Aires offices in December. He said in the Instagram post that they were changing investing in order to assist Argentinians with inflation. He asserted that it is now possible to replicate any investment in dollars, pesos, or digital currencies and profit from it.
However, CoinX shut down when the National Securities Commission (CNV), the market watchdog, warned that the platform lacked the legal authorization to operate in the nation and instructed it to cease operations. According to local media, it had not also given investors the profits they had anticipated.
A group of Milei’s disappointed followers are now suing for compensation after acting on her advice but receiving only modest rewards. Milei, a libertarian economist who is 51 years old and supports Bitcoin and has previously referred to the central bank as “a scam,” has since distanced himself from the platform, claiming he didn’t deceive anyone and wasn’t paid to promote CoinX.
A lawsuit brought by attorney Juan Pablo Chiesa claims that investors have lost between 30 and 40 million pesos (almost $300,000) as a result of it now.
The odd politician, who frequently posts on social media, claims he wants to preserve Argentina, which has among the highest inflation rates in the world. And he’s succeeding. According to some polls, he ranks among the top 3 contenders for the presidency in the upcoming election.