Key Points
- Luigi Mangione, who is now a murder suspect, already has a memecoin linked to his name.
- Yesterday, the memecoin spiked from a market cap of $330,000 to $34 million in less than 2 hours.
Reports on X revealed on December 9 that Luigi Mangione, the murder suspect in the killing of UnitedHealthcare’s CEO case, already has a memecoin linked to his name. The coin is called LUIGI and was created on Solana, spiking in market cap in less than two hours.
LUIGI’s Market Cap Spiked in Less Than 2 Hours
On December 9, the memecoin LUIGI was created on Solana, and, according to on-chain data, the coin surged from a market cap of $330,000 to $34 million in less than 2 hours.
The memecoin was highlighted via X by user Rektober, who said that the crypto industry is the only place where people can see such price surges.
The memecoin on Solana makes a reference to the murder suspect of UnitedHealthcare’s CEO, Brian Thompson.
The UnitedHealthcare’s CEO Murder Case
A 26-year-old man called Luigi Nicholas Mangione was arrested and charged with murder yesterday, December 9, following the killing of UnitedHealthcare’s CEO, Brian Thompson.
The arrest took place after a McDonald’s customer in Pennsylvania recognized Mangione from a surveillance photo and police officers found a gun, mask, and writings linking him to the murder case, as AP News reported this morning.
The same reports note that Mangione is an Ivy League graduate from an important Maryland real estate family and he had a gun that is believed to be the one used in last Wednesday’s shooting of Brian Thompson. He also reportedly had writings that suggested anger with corporate America, according to police notes.
Yesterday, Manhattan prosecutors filed murder and other charges against Mangione, AP News reports, and he is now jailed in Pennsylvania, where he was also charged with possession of an unlicensed firearm, forgery, and offering false identification to police.
The police arrested Mangione yesterday at 9:15 am, after finding a black, 3D-printed pistol, and a 3D-printed black silencer in his backpack. Such ghost guns can be reportedly assembled at home from parts without a serial number, making their tracing difficult.
NYPD Chief of Detectives Joseph Kenny said that Mangione was born and raised in Maryland and has ties in San Francisco, and a last known address in Honolulu. His family is reportedly in shock by the arrest, offering prayers and support to the family of Brian Thompson and everyone involved.
Mangione is currently held without bail by the police and he will eventually be extradited to New York to face charges. The police reportedly found a three-page document with writings that suggest Mangione had “ill will toward corporate America.”
A law enforcement official discussed with The Associated Press and said that the document included a line in which Mangione claimed to have acted alone.
The document was cited as saying the following: “to the Feds, I’ll keep this short, because I do respect what you do for our country. To save you a lengthy investigation, I state plainly that I wasn’t working with anyone.”
The notes also reportedly said, “I do apologize for any strife or traumas but it had to be done. Frankly, these parasites simply had it coming.”
According to authorities, Mangione had a passport and $10,000 in cash of which $2,000 was in foreign currency.
Thompson was reportedly killed last Wednesday, as he was walking alone to a hotel, where UnitedHealth Group, the parent company of UnitedHealthcare, was holding its annual investor conference.
This shooting shook the US business and health insurance industry leading companies to rethink their security plans and delete photos of executives from their websites, reports AP News.
Today, NBC News posted an article highlighting that it’s extremely ironic that the suspect in this murder case played a video game killer, according to notes coming from a friend.
The game was reportedly called “Among Us” and in it, some players were secretly assigned to be killers, who performed other tasks while trying to avoid suspicion from other players.
The New York Times revealed that Mangione is currently charged with 5 crimes – murder, three gun charges, and forgery.
The Guardian reported earlier today, that the Pennsylvania governor, Josh Shapiro, condemned Mangione’s supporters, saying “In America, we do not kill people in cold blood to resolve policy differences or express a viewpoint.”
A judge still has to rule on the murder case before settling the final verdict.
