An Argentine federal judge has dismissed the LIBRA criminal case against President Javier Milei and 10 other defendants, including his sister Karina and U.S. businessman Hayden Davis, at the prosecutor’s request.
Summary
- Argentina dismissed the LIBRA criminal case against Javier Milei, Karina Milei, Hayden Davis and eight others.
- A New York judge had separately dismissed the LIBRA class action in September.
- Challenges over affected investors’ exclusion from the Argentine proceedings remained pending, according to Infobae.
- Investigators could not establish the contents of Milei’s launch-day calls with Mauricio Novelli.
La Nación reported that Judge Marcelo Martínez de Giorgi issued the 60-page decision on Oct. 23 after prosecutor Eduardo Taiano sought the dismissals, with none of the defendants having been called for formal questioning.
The ruling covers allegations arising from the February 2025 launch and collapse of LIBRA, a Solana token Milei promoted as a private project supporting Argentine businesses. According to the newspaper, the investigation ended with some evidence-gathering measures incomplete and affected investors excluded from participating as private complainants.
LIBRA dismissal follows the prosecutor’s request
Infobae, which reviewed the resolution, reported that the judge found the events did not constitute the criminal offenses investigated. Alongside the Milei siblings and Davis, the decision covers Mauricio Novelli, Manuel Terrones Godoy, Sergio Morales, Julian Peh, María Alicia Rafaele, María Pía Novelli, Camilo Rodríguez Blanco and Orlando Mellino.
The outlet said the judge accepted the prosecutor’s reasoning that the token’s promotion, price rally, and subsequent collapse were insufficient to establish fraud. Investigators had not identified a specific false statement that caused buyers to purchase LIBRA, according to its account of the ruling.
On Karina Milei, Infobae reported that investigators examined unsigned documents and notes recovered from Novelli’s phone. The judge found insufficient evidence that she had received payment for arranging access to the president.
Although private complainants had been removed from the proceedings, the outlet reported that challenges to their exclusion remained pending before the Federal Criminal Cassation Court. Those challenges concern their participation in the case; the report did not establish that the dismissal itself had been overturned.
New York’s LIBRA class action was dismissed in September
The U.S. litigation had already reached a separate dismissal before Friday’s Argentine decision. As crypto.news previously reported on Oct. 2, the New York court dismissed the class action involving Kelsier, Davis, former Meteora CEO Benjamin Chow and Meteora.
Judge Jennifer L. Rochon’s Sept. 29 opinion granted the dismissal motions and denied investors Omar Hurlock and Anuj Mehta permission to file a second amended complaint.
The final page distinguishes the grounds for dismissing the Kelsier defendants. Rochon dismissed the fraud and conspiracy-to-defraud counts for failure to state a claim, while dismissing the remaining counts against them for lack of personal jurisdiction.
The court dismissed the claims against Chow and Meteora for failure to state a claim. Its order states that the amended complaint was “dismissed with prejudice” and directs the clerk to “CLOSE the case.”
The opinion identifies Hurlock as a Brooklyn resident and Mehta as a resident of Arlington, Virginia. Both brought the action on behalf of themselves and other investors. The order examined here establishes the district court’s disposition, without establishing whether a subsequent appeal has been filed.
Frozen funds had been released before either dismissal
During the U.S. proceedings, Rochon had ordered USDC in two wallets frozen in May 2025. Coverage from August 2025 documented the subsequent release of $57.6 million, after the judge found the defendants had complied with restrictions while the funds were locked.
At that stage, investors were seeking more than $100 million in damages, according to the report. The release preceded the September 2026 dismissal and was not a compensation payment to token buyers.
Argentine investigators pursued their own requests for financial records. A July 17 report documented an order to identify the holders of 25 cryptocurrency wallets and freeze assets linked to the investigation.
The reporting, citing Clarín’s account of a federal police analysis, described requests for customer information and transaction records involving Binance, Bybit, OKX and Bitfinex. Investigators traced a May 10 transfer of 498,539 USDT through a cross-chain protocol to Tron, followed by transfers through other addresses.
Those were investigative findings and requests described at the time. The July coverage does not establish that every exchange implemented the requested freezes.
Opposition lawmakers challenge the investigation’s closure
La Nación reported that presidential adviser Santiago Caputo welcomed the dismissal and accused critics of using the case to damage Milei. Opposition lawmakers disputed the handling of the investigation.
Maximiliano Ferraro, who chaired the lower house commission investigating LIBRA, criticized the failure to call defendants for formal questioning and accused judicial officials of obstructing the inquiry. His accusations were political reactions reported by the newspaper, not findings established by the dismissal.
A separate examination by Argentine fact-checking outlet Chequeado identified unresolved evidence described in the ruling. Investigators established that Milei and Novelli communicated around the launch but could not determine the contents of their calls.
Chequeado reported that some efforts to trace funds could not be completed because investigators lacked licensed technical tools, while certain platform responses were partial. Requests for assistance from U.S. authorities ended after those authorities considered the supporting information insufficient.
According to the outlet, investigators recovered documents concerning proposed agreements and commissions from Novelli’s phone, but could not establish in several instances that they had been sent, accepted, or carried out.
