LIBRA Case Concluded: Milei Cleared, Retail Investors Left with Losses

Original | Odaily Planet Daily (@OdailyChina)

Author | Wenser (@wenser 2010)

Argentine President Milei, who was embroiled in controversy for promoting the "presidential memecoin" LIBRA, has finally been vindicated.

On October 23, Argentine federal judge Marcelo Martinez de Giorgi, at the prosecution's request, dismissed the criminal investigation against Milei and his sister Karina Milei, ruling that the alleged incidents did not constitute a statutory offense. On the day of the ruling, Milei posted a lengthy article on X, lamenting the defamation, lies, and smear campaigns he had endured over the past 18 months and nine days, accusing the actions of "political persecution" and shouting "Long live freedom," seemingly echoing the theme of the LIBRA token.

On October 2, U.S. federal judge Jennifer L. Rochon also dismissed the class action lawsuit against the Libra project’s organizer Kelsier Ventures, the decentralized finance platform Meteora, and developer Benjamin Chow, and denied the plaintiffs’ request to file an amended complaint.

Looking back at the February 2025 "political meme coin" turmoil, all parties involved managed to navigate away unscathed, leaving only retail investors who bought LIBRA to mourn their losses.

Looking back on this turmoil, the investors in the LIBRA token were undoubtedly the hardest hit. Data shows that LIBRA’s market capitalization once surged to approximately $4.6 billion before plummeting by over 90%; according to Nansen data, about 86% of participants incurred losses, affecting approximately 114,000 wallets with combined losses of around $251 million （推荐阅读《LIBRA 黑幕追踪：从米莱删推到内幕团队互撕，谁在操控这场“国家级 Rug Pull”？》）.

A $5 million payment agreement still does not prove Milei's guilt.

Let’s quickly review the background of what happened:

On February 14, 2025, following Trump's release of TRUMP, Argentine President Milei promoted LIBRA on his personal X account under the project name “Viva la Libertad Project,” claiming it would fund small businesses in Argentina. The token was deployed on Solana at 21:38 UTC that evening, and Milei tweeted the contract address at 22:01. The price surged to approximately $4.5 within an hour, reaching a market cap of around $4.6 billion; shortly after, wallets associated with the team sold off the token and drained the liquidity pool of USDC and SOL, causing the price to drop more than 94% within about 11 hours.

Shortly afterward, Milei quickly deleted the tweet, claiming he had no knowledge of the coin’s internal details and no connection to the project team. Argentina’s opposition immediately pushed for impeachment, and Congress established an investigative committee to launch an inquiry. On February 17, Milei made his first public response on TN television, stating that “at most 5,000 people were affected, and the vast majority of investors were Chinese and American,” and added, “I made no mistake because I acted in good faith,” attempting to evade further investigation. Cointelegraph verified on-chain data at the time and found that over 15,000 wallets had realized profits or losses exceeding $1,000 on LIBRA.

In April 2025, The New York Times published an investigative report revealing that call records obtained by Argentine federal prosecutors showed that Milei himself spoke seven times with Mauricio Novelli, a key intermediary in the LIBRA token project, on the evening of February 14, 2025—the very night he posted the LIBRA token contract address on X, triggering the crypto scam. The calls occurred around the time the promotional post was published, directly contradicting Milei’s repeated claims of having “no connection whatsoever” to the project （see“LIBRA Scandal Escalates: Argentine President’s Seven Phone Calls and $5 Million Agreement Draft Exposed”）.

In May 2025, an Argentine federal judge ordered the freezing of assets of key figures in the LIBRA project, with the investigation encompassing financial activities by Milei and his sister Karina. On May 19 of the same month, Milei signed a decree with Justice Minister Mariano Cúneo Libarona dissolving the special task force (UTI), established on February 19 to investigate the Libra scandal, citing that it had "completed its mandate"—even as opposition forces were pressuring Congress to launch a formal investigative committee.

In August 2025, a U.S. court lifted the freeze on $57.6 million in USDC held by Hayden Davis, head of Kelsier Ventures, the organization behind Libra, and Benjamin Chow, founder of Meteora. Crypto KOL scooter commented on this development, noting that just five hours after Davis’s funds were unfrozen, the celebrity Meme coin YZY, associated with renowned rapper Kanye West, was launched—suggesting this may not be a coincidence. However, there is currently no evidence supporting any fund movement linking the two events.

The March 2026 judicial update revealed that forensic analysts extracted a draft agreement from the seized phone of intermediary Mauricio Novelli, detailing a $5 million arrangement related to the promotion of LIBRA, drafted three days before Milei’s post. The draft outlined three payment installments: an initial $1.5 million (in tokens or cash) as an advance; a second $1.5 million contingent upon Milei publicly announcing Hayden Davis as his advisor on social media; and a final $2 million to be paid after Milei and his sister Karina signed a face-to-face contract regarding government consulting on blockchain or AI.

The case appeared to have overwhelming evidence, but today we received the ruling by an Argentine federal judge, at the request of prosecutors, to dismiss the criminal investigation against Milei and his sister. This outcome is unlikely to satisfy the victims who have been waiting patiently.

Findings: Milei and his siblings, along with nine other individuals, did not commit any crime, in accordance with Argentine law.

In this approximately 60-page ruling, Judge Marcelo Martinez de Giorgi of the 8th Federal Criminal and Correctional Court of Argentina dismissed all charges and archived the case against Milei, his sister (Chief of Staff of the Presidency) Karina Milei, and nine others, concluding that the alleged facts did not constitute a statutory offense, and accepted the motion to drop the case filed by prosecutor Eduardo Taiano.

The primary reason for the ruling was that, under Article 336, Paragraph 3 of Argentina’s Criminal Procedure Code, no “fraudulent deception” as defined by criminal law was proven. The project itself was real, tokens were issued, and operations were traceable on-chain; no fixed returns were promised. While the president’s promotion may have increased visibility and trust, “official status, public attention, or trust alone do not constitute a fraudulent scheme.” Price fluctuations and the final distribution of profits and losses are insufficient on their own to prove criminality; fraud cannot be inferred solely from the final allocation. No official conduct, use of public resources, abuse of power, or negotiations incompatible with public office were found; the anti-corruption office’s findings supported the conclusion that the tweets originated from a personal account. The judge wrote in the ruling: “Arranging a meeting or assisting in organizing an encounter does not, in itself, constitute influence peddling.” Investigators recovered unsigned documents and notes from Novelli’s phone, but the judge determined that evidence of Karina receiving payments remained insufficient.

Notably, throughout the 20-month investigation, none of the individuals under investigation were summoned for formal questioning.

With the judge’s ruling concluded, Mile posted a lengthy message on X that day, calling the allegations the work of a "political insider group" and paid-off journalists, and demanding compensation: “Who will now compensate me for the harm I’ve suffered over one year, eight months, and nine days due to lies, defamation, and slander?” He also wrote, “Truth itself will prevail.”

It turns out that the law does not always side with the victim, especially when the opposing side is a president of a country.