Meteora Co-Founder Hit with New Lawsuit Over Token Scams Linked to Trump, Milei

The revised lawsuit alleges that Chao’s group used popular names to lure investors into Solana-based pump-and-dump schemes.

Benjamin Chow, a well-known cryptocurrency developer and co-founder of the Meteora decentralized exchange on Solana, has been named as the driving force behind a plan to scam investors through 15 different token schemes.

A redacted version of the class action lawsuit, which was first filed in federal court in New York on April 21, 2025, says Chow, Meteora and Kelsier Ventures, a company run by Hayden Davis and some members of his family, used the names of famous people such as U.S. First Lady Melania Trump and Argentine President Javier Miley to lend credibility to their operations. Coordinated scams aimed at making money from unwitting cryptocurrency investors.

The mechanics of the alleged scheme

Initial complaint Chow, Meteora, and members of the Davis family were accused of lying to cryptocurrency investors. It said they made money at the public’s expense by manipulating the price of a Solana-based token called M3M3, of which up to 95% of its supply was controlled by a group of insiders.

Modified document It now claims that fraud may have occurred with as many as 15 cryptocurrencies, including the controversial MELANIA and LIBRA coins, which were promoted by Mrs. Trump and President Miley, respectively. This information is said to have come from private messages shared by an informant, in which Davis allegedly admitted to carrying out “at least fifteen token launches in Zhao’s direction.”

Those who filed the lawsuit say Chow and the other defendants “borrowed credibility” from public figures and used it as a “front” to make their plans appear more legitimate. For this reason, they do not hold Melania or Miley responsible; Instead, they focus on Meteora, its co-founder, and Kelsier’s management.

The new dossier claims that the alleged plot was carried out in a highly organized manner, with each participant having a clear role. Zhao was supposed to be in charge of the technical side due to his “unique knowledge of the code and ability to handle liquidity, fee routing, and supply controls.” As such, the complainants say it was possible for him to control the supply and prices of new currencies, creating situations in which their values ​​could be artificially raised and then collapsed without the knowledge of ordinary traders.

As for the marketing side, the lawsuit cites Kelsier Ventures, where Hayden, Charles, and Gideon Davis used paid influencers and social media campaigns to make it appear as if there was real public demand for meme currencies like MELANIA and LIBRA. The group is said to have used the same formula for all 15 coins: they created artificial scarcity, flooded the Internet with paid promotions, and then, when prices rose, insiders sold all of their holdings at once, sending prices soaring. to make The value of the asset fell and caused other investors to suffer huge losses.

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A pattern of denial and mounting evidence

According to the lawsuit, after the LIBRA token collapsed in February 2025, Meteora pretended to blacklist Kelsier, a move that plaintiffs called “performative.” Zhao and members of Meteora’s leadership are said to have made sworn statements describing themselves as “passive independent software developers,” suggesting they had nothing to do with the price behaviors of the crypto assets in question.

The programmer Leaves Meteora in February, still insists on his innocence, but data from blockchain analysis companies like Bubblemaps tells a different story. Their report, dated February 17, 2025, clearly followed the portfolio addresses Show The financial ties between those who created Melania and Libra have been revealed, with insiders revealed to have made profits of more than $100 million.