Argentine judge drops fraud probe into Milei over $Libra crypto collapse

An Argentine federal judge has dropped the criminal investigation into President Javier Milei and his sister Karina Milei over the collapse of the $Libra meme coin, ruling the reported events “do not constitute a criminal offence”.

Federal judge Marcelo Martinez de Giorgi issued the ruling on Friday, after prosecutor Eduardo Taiano asked for the case to be dismissed, Reuters reported, citing court records and Argentine outlet La Nacion.

In the ruling, the judge found that investors’ losses and the coin’s brief rise and fall were “insufficient to establish fraud”. He wrote that Milei’s institutional standing could have given the $Libra launch “greater impact”, but said that “does not translate into a fraudulent scheme”, according to Al Jazeera.

Milei recommended the little-known cryptocurrency in a post on X in February 2025, sparking a brief rally before he deleted the post and denied any link to the project. The coin soon plunged. Blockchain researchers estimated that about $99 million in crypto was withdrawn from the coin’s marketplace by eight digital wallets linked to its creator, and Argentina’s fintech chamber said the episode could have been a “rug pull”, The Straits Times reported.

The judge also dismissed a probe into US businessman Hayden Davis, a self-described “launch adviser” for the token who has acknowledged holding close to $100 million after the crash and denies wrongdoing.

Milei’s presidential office said on X that the ruling was “absolute proof of his innocence”, adding that never before had a president been investigated “with complete freedom”.