Argentina Court Dismisses Crypto Fraud Inquiry Into President Milei

An Argentine federal court has dismissed a criminal fraud investigation into President Javier Milei concerning the promotion and subsequent collapse of a volatile cryptocurrency. Federal Judge Marcelo Martínez de Giorgi ordered the case closed after accepting a formal petition from prosecutor Eduardo Taiano, who determined that the actions under scrutiny did not breach criminal law.

The judicial resolution, known under Argentine legal procedure as a sobreseimiento, definitively clears Milei along with his sister and close political adviser, Karina Milei. The order also terminates legal proceedings against nine other individuals named in the initial complaints, removing an inquiry that had trailed the administration for months.

The controversy originated after Milei published a post on X, formerly known as Twitter, highlighting a newly launched digital asset dubbed the $LIBRA token. Following his social media post, the cryptocurrency experienced an immediate and steep increase in trading volume before its value plummeted, causing substantial financial losses for retail buyers.

The Argentine leader promptly deleted the post once allegations surfaced that the token was experiencing an abrupt market collapse. Milei consistently rejected any suggestion of wrongdoing, maintaining that his brief commentary was intended merely to share information and was not a commercial endorsement.

Throughout the inquiry, Milei and his legal team argued that the president held no financial stake in the token, nor did he profit from its launch or price swings. Defense filings stressed that participating in public discussions regarding decentralized finance and digital currencies is a familiar theme in Milei's libertarian rhetoric rather than an orchestrated scheme to deceive investors.

In his review, Prosecutor Taiano concluded that the gathered evidence failed to demonstrate fraudulent intent or an organized conspiracy to artificially inflate asset prices. The court found that speculative fluctuations in unregulated cryptocurrency markets cannot automatically be equated to criminal deception under Argentina's existing penal code.

The domestic dismissal closely mirrors outcomes in related legal challenges brought by disgruntled buyers overseas. A class-action lawsuit filed by private investors in a New York federal court was similarly dismissed earlier this year, weakening the broader legal campaign against the token's promoters.

For Milei, who campaigned vigorously on free-market deregulation and monetary freedom, the investigation posed an awkward test of his pro-crypto stance. Opposition politicians had leveraged the controversy to question the administration's ethics, while supporters viewed the legal filings as politically motivated attempts to derail his reform agenda.

The resolution highlights the persistent regulatory ambiguities surrounding influencer and executive endorsements in the digital asset sector across Latin America. Regulators worldwide have struggled to delineate between personal opinion and illicit market promotion, particularly when dealing with rapidly shifting meme tokens.

With the criminal inquiry formally closed, the Argentine presidency moves past one of its most visible regulatory controversies without facing formal trial proceedings. While civil claims or independent appeals remain theoretically possible under Argentine procedure, legal analysts expect the comprehensive judicial dismissal to effectively conclude the matter.