A class action lawsuit has been filed in the US alleging that US First Lady Melania Trump and Argentine President Javier Miley were indirectly involved in promoting the fraudulent memecoins LIBRA and MELANIA. The plaintiffs believe that Benjamin Chou, founder of the startup Meteora, was behind the projects and coordinated the actions of other participants.
According to Hurlock vs Kelsier Ventures, Chou is described as the “center of the enterprise” who managed the issuance and sale of several tokens. Those assets rose sharply in value after launch, then collapsed to nearly zero when the developers withdrew liquidity.
The lawsuit alleges that public figures were used as “props” to lend legitimacy to the projects. The MELANIA coin launched in January 2025, two days after Donald Trump’s token appeared, and collapsed 99% within weeks.
A similar fate befell LIBRA, a token promoted by Miley under the slogan of supporting small businesses in Argentina. It lost 90% of its value in a matter of hours.
Analytics company Bubblemaps found that the wallets involved in both coins are linked to each other and to Meteora’s infrastructure. This prompted a class action lawsuit against Chou, Hayden Davis and Kelsier Ventures, accused of coordinated rate manipulation.
The plaintiffs allege that Chou acted through proxies, including Meteora co-founder Ming Yeo and the Davis family, who allegedly conducted “serial launches” of at least 15 tokens. The complaint details five projects that used the same pump-and-dump pricing pattern.
Meanwhile, in August 2025, a judge ordered the unfreezing of $57.6 million related to LIBRA, indicating that the likelihood of success of the lawsuit remained low. Benjamin Chow himself left Meteora back in February and declined to comment on the allegations.
Lawyers for the plaintiffs claim to have evidence of his role in managing the scheme, including correspondence in Telegram between the entrepreneur and other participants.