Déjà vu? Another libertarian politician promotes ‘$LIBRA’ crypto token

The ‘Cryptogate’ scandal just won’t go away for Javier Milei – weeks after the President's controversial social media post promoting a scam cryptocurrency that later tanked, one of his party’s lawmakers has followed in his footsteps.

This time, however, the post promoting a second version of the ‘$LIBRA’ token, made by the X social media account of La Libertad Avanza lawmaker José Luis Espert, was the result of an alleged hacking.

The alleged hackers posted a message in favour of the controversial cryptocurrency token that read: "The liberal revolution is advancing in Argentina! We are launching $LIBRA V2, a project dedicated to boosting the Argentine economy, supporting entrepreneurs and SMEs with transparent and decentralised private financing.”

Details about the currency were added, along with a final message declaring: “Argentina has a bright future @JMilei and together we will achieve it.”

Soon after, the hackers uploaded a photo of Espert, in which the economist-cum-lawmaker can he seen holding up a piece of paper with the name of the token on it.

Espert’s top advisor Jimena Aristizábal confirmed Thursday night that her boss had been the victim of a cyberattack. He had no knowledge the post made on his account, she confirmed.

A few minutes later, Mercedes González, Espert's wife, also confirmed the hack.

"José Luis' account has been hacked. I am his wife," she said, noting that they were trying to take control of the account again. 

The post comes just weeks after Milei found himself at the centre of a storm over the token. 

The head of state promoted the cryptocurrency as a way to stimulate innovation and private-sector investment in Argentina and support his administration, but $LIBRA’s rapid rise and collapse ended in scandal.

At around 11pm Thursday, in a post on the same social network, Espert confirmed that his account had been briefly taken over and apologised for any inconvenience.

“I deeply regret to inform you that my account was hacked. The recent messages and posts are not my own, and I apologise to anyone who may have been confused or misunderstood by these malicious actions,” wrote the lawmaker.

“I am taking all necessary steps to regain control of the account and ensure that this does not happen again. I appreciate your understanding and support at this time,” he added, though it remains unclear that he did author the message.

Just a few minutes later, the hackers had one more go, posting another memecoin offer – another obvious attempt at a scam. 

In a video message shared by other accounts, Espert then took to social media to confirm the hacking. He promised to explain the situation in a post on La Libertad Avanza’s social media channels once he had regained full control of his account.

He blamed the hack on a political attempt to “destabilise” the government. 

Some crypto experts, however, remain suspicious. Approaching a well-known figure to post about a token, then allowing them to state hours later that one has been hacked is a regular tactic deployed by crypto-scammers on so-called ‘rugpull’ schemes.

– TIMES/NA/PERFIL