Meteora Founder Accused of $57M Memecoin Scam Involving Trump and Milei

A class action lawsuit filed in New York alleges Meteora co-founder Benjamin Chow orchestrated a $57 million fraud scheme leveraging celebrity endorsements from Melania TRUMP and Argentine President Javier Milei. The complaint details how Chow's operation allegedly manipulated retail investors through a series of coordinated pump-and-dump schemes.

Forensic analysis identified a central wallet (0xcEA) that funded deployer wallets to create tokens, seed liquidity, and finance sniper wallets. The lawsuit seeks disgorgement of profits, treble damages under RICO statutes, and appointment of a receiver for Meteora's upgradeable smart contracts.

The scheme allegedly exploited technical features like whitelists and freeze/thaw toggles to acquire majority token supplies at minimal cost before artificially inflating prices through undisclosed influencer promotions.