Federal judge Marcelo Martínez De Giorgi dismissed the $LIBRA case against Argentine President Javier Milei, his sister Karina Milei and nine other people on Friday 23 October 2026, ruling that the facts under investigation fit no criminal offence, Infobae and Ámbito reported from the decision. The defendants include Hayden Davis, the American businessman who described himself as the launch adviser of the Solana memecoin in February 2025. The judge acted at the request of federal prosecutor Eduardo Taiano, and none of the eleven was ever called for formal questioning.
The legal word is sobreseimiento, a dismissal at the investigation stage. It is not an acquittal after a trial, because there was no trial. Once it becomes final, Argentine law treats it as a closed matter for the people it covers.
That moment may come soon. The prosecutor asked for the ruling, so he will not appeal it, and the private complainants who could have challenged it were removed from the case over the summer. Perfil wrote that the decision should become final within days, and urgente24 headlined that nobody was left to appeal. Appeals by the removed investors, pending before the Cámara de Casación since September, are the only route still visible.
The biggest memecoin case to touch a sitting head of state has now ended, in Buenos Aires and in New York, without any court deciding whether buyers were defrauded. The decision recalls the complaint’s figures, as reported by Ámbito and the Buenos Aires Herald: a few wallets linked to the promoters withdrew about $100 million, and more than 40,000 buyers lost money.
What the judge found in the Milei LIBRA case, and why the prosecutor asked for it
Martínez De Giorgi, who sits at federal criminal court no. 8 in Buenos Aires according to Bitcoin.com News, based the dismissal on article 336, point 3 of the national Code of Criminal Procedure, which applies when the facts do not match any offence in the criminal code, Ámbito reported. In Infobae’s account, the judge wrote that the facts “no encuadran en una figura legal”, meaning they fall under no legal definition of a crime. Al Jazeera, citing court records, rendered the core finding as “The reported events do not constitute a criminal offence.”
He also agreed with Taiano. The prosecutor had asked for the case to be closed, and the judge found the request properly reasoned, according to Ámbito. Perfil adds that the judge closed it without hearing any defendant, arguing that a suspect is entitled to a decision that removes the suspicion for good.
Fraud: no lie identified, and a loss is not a crime
Fraud (estafa) under Argentine law needs a deception that leads the victim to hand over money. The judge said the investigation had not identified a specific false statement or a deception relevant to criminal law. Memecoins are extremely volatile, he noted, and a buyer losing money is not enough on its own. Taiano had reached the same view: no deception relevant to criminal law had been proven, Perfil wrote.
Bitcoin.com News summed up a further strand of the reasoning: the token was actually launched, blockchain data showed it operated, and no one promised buyers future profits.
The president’s post: visibility is not a ruse
Milei promoted $LIBRA on X on 14 February 2025. The judge accepted that the post may have given the project more impact and visibility. But such facts “no equivalen, por sí solas, a un ardid defraudatorio”, he wrote in the passage quoted by Ámbito: they do not amount, by themselves, to a fraudulent scheme. Al Jazeera’s English summary is close: the president’s standing could have given the launch “greater impact”, without that being fraud.
On the public-office charges, the ruling leaned on the Anti-Corruption Office (Oficina Anticorrupción). That office had concluded that the post came from Milei’s personal account, used no public resources and was not spread through the Presidency’s institutional channels, according to Infobae. With that, the judge found no abuse of authority and no negociaciones incompatibles, the offence of a public official taking an interest in a deal.
Karina Milei: one entry pass and an unsigned note
Karina Milei, secretary general of the Presidency, was investigated for influence peddling. The only direct document, Infobae reported, was her authorisation for Hayden Davis and Bartosz Lipinski to enter the Casa Rosada in July 2024. The judge said that alone does not prove an unlawful arrangement, or that anyone agreed to pay her for arranging meetings with the president. Investigators also recovered two deleted conversations with a contact saved as “Karina Milei RRPP”, but could not establish what they said, Ámbito reported.
Investigators also found a note in the Apple Notes app on the phone of Mauricio Novelli, one of the traders around the launch and himself a defendant. It mentioned a “final agreement” with “H”, identified as Davis, and a payment to Javier and Karina. The note was unsigned. Forensic work did not show it had been sent to anyone or accepted, and the judge said it had no documentary value, according to Infobae and Ámbito.
The decision also cites an earlier ruling of the Cámara Federal, the appeals court above him, which had weakened the theory of a scheme run from the top of government, the Buenos Aires Herald reported.
Eleven people cleared, none questioned
Infobae listed the eleven people covered by the dismissal:
- Javier Milei, President of Argentina
- Karina Milei, secretary general of the Presidency
- Hayden Davis, the US entrepreneur behind the launch, through his firm Kelsier Ventures
- Mauricio Novelli, Manuel Terrones Godoy and Sergio Morales, from the circle of traders and lobbyists around the launch
- Chyi Haur (Julian) Peh, María Alicia Rafaele, María Pía Novelli, Camilo Rodríguez Blanco and Orlando Mellino
Perfil stressed that the case closed “sin una sola indagatoria”, without a single formal questioning, the step in Argentine procedure where a suspect is told of the accusation and can answer it. Perfil also noted that the ruling does not mention the 205-page report of the Chamber of Deputies’ investigative committee.
With all eleven covered, Infobae and Ámbito report that nobody remains under criminal investigation in Argentina for the $LIBRA launch. Coindaro found no other open Argentine proceeding on the same facts.
The Presidency speaks of a coup attempt; Grabois of impunity
The Presidency answered on X. In Al Jazeera’s translation, its post said that “for the first time in history, a President of the Nation was investigated with complete freedom”, referred to an “institutional coup” and asked who would take responsibility for wasting Argentine taxpayers’ money. A headline in Ámbito quoted Milei as saying “La Justicia volvió a poner las cosas en su lugar” (justice put things back in their place).
Juan Grabois, an opposition deputy who had given legal support to one of the investor groups acting as complainants, spoke of the “impunidad obscena del poder” (obscene impunity of power) and blamed a “judicial mafia”, El Intransigente reported. He also wrote that Taiano, who was supposed to act as prosecutor, had acted as a defence lawyer. Neither Hayden Davis nor Karina Milei had made a public statement on the ruling that Coindaro could find by Saturday morning.
Who can still appeal: the complainants were removed before the ruling
A dismissal can normally be challenged by the prosecutor or by the querellantes, private parties admitted to the case. Here neither is in a position to do so.
On 3 July 2026, Martínez De Giorgi removed all the complainants representing alleged victims, at the request of the defence, Perfil reported; BAE Negocios names the defence of Mauricio Novelli as the one that pushed for it. Sala I of the Cámara Federal upheld the removal on 4 September 2026, in a ruling BAE Negocios says was signed by judge Pablo Bertuzzi one day after he took office. With Taiano having asked for the dismissal himself, urgente24 wrote that the ruling would become final without an appeal from the prosecutor.
One door is still ajar. On 16 September 2026, two groups of investors asked the Cámara de Casación, Argentina’s top criminal appeals court, to let them stay in the case, BAE Negocios reported. Their lawyers called the removal a “sobreseimiento encubierto”, a disguised dismissal, said they would file a queja (a complaint against the refusal) if Casación turned them down, and argued that 74 wallets linked to the accused had bought $LIBRA 22 seconds before the president’s post. Infobae writes that their direct appeals are still pending before Casación. If that court restored them as parties, they could then attack the dismissal. No ruling has been reported, and the deadline for any challenge has not been published in the coverage Coindaro reviewed.
The removal matters for money as well as for the criminal case. The offshore Libra Trust promoted by Davis, holding about $110 million, is open only to people who present themselves to the Argentine courts as injured parties, its administrators say, according to BAE Negocios. Bitcoin.com News reported that the trust plans to hand out more than $110 million in grants to Argentine entrepreneurs before November; Coindaro has seen no confirmed payout.
The US class action ended the same way three weeks earlier
In New York, the investors’ class action Hurlock v. Kelsier Ventures (No. 1:25-cv-03891, Southern District of New York) is also over, for now. The CourtListener docket shows Judge Jennifer L. Rochon’s opinion and order of 29 September 2026 and a clerk’s judgment signed on 30 September and entered on the docket on 1 October, in favour of Meteora, its founder Benjamin Chow, Hayden Davis, Charles Thomas Davis and Gideon Davis. It closes the case.
According to cryptonews.net, the 81-page opinion granted all three motions to dismiss and refused the plaintiffs another try at amending their complaint, calling it futile, so the dismissal is with prejudice. The racketeering (RICO) claim failed because an alleged enterprise running from October 2024 to March 2025 lacked the required continuity: “Six months is not sufficient”, the court wrote. The fraud claims failed on intent, since a profit motive alone does not show fraudulent intent. Once the only federal claim was gone, the court also found no basis for jurisdiction over Kelsier and the Davises in New York. It never ruled on whether the alleged insider extraction happened.
The case began when Burwick Law sued in New York state court in March 2025; it then moved to federal court. A temporary restraining order in May 2025 led to a freeze of $57.6 million in USDC held in two wallets linked to Davis and Chow. Judge Rochon released the funds in August 2025, saying she was skeptical the plaintiffs would succeed and that the pair had not behaved as “evasive actors”, Decrypt reported.
As of 30 September, no notice of appeal had been docketed, cryptonews.net wrote, and none appears on the CourtListener copy of the docket, which may lag behind the court’s own system. As a general rule, Rule 4(a)(1)(A) of the Federal Rules of Appellate Procedure gives a party in a private civil case 30 days after entry of the judgment to file a notice of appeal, and some post-judgment motions pause that clock.
Congress’s report still stands, without legal force
The Chamber of Deputies set up a special investigative committee, chaired by Maximiliano Ferraro of the Coalición Cívica. Its final report, released in November 2025, runs to 205 pages and was signed by 15 opposition deputies, Perfil reported. It describes a planned fraud scheme, says Javier and Karina Milei had a decisive role “by action or omission” and recommends that Congress consider mal desempeño (misconduct in office), a ground for impeachment. Milei’s party, La Libertad Avanza, rejected it.
The report counted 114,410 wallets with losses and 36 wallets that each gained more than $1 million. It is a political document and binds no court. The committee also accused Taiano and Martínez De Giorgi of systematically refusing to cooperate with it, according to Perfil. On 16 March 2026 former members announced complaints against the prosecutor for obstructing the investigation and alleged cover-up, La Gaceta reported. No new step by the committee’s former members has been reported since Friday’s ruling.
What happened to $LIBRA in February 2025
$LIBRA was presented as a way to fund small Argentine businesses. It was a memecoin on Solana, traded in pools on Meteora, a Solana trading platform, rather than listed by a company with an issuer’s obligations. Milei shared it on X on 14 February 2025.
The price rose from about one cent to nearly $5, according to the complaint as summarised by the Buenos Aires Herald, and the token’s market value reached about $4.5 billion, according to Decrypt. Blockchain analytics firm TRM Labs found that 20 minutes before the post, one address received 1 million LIBRA and added it to a Meteora liquidity pool, then sent more tokens to other addresses that did the same. Within hours the price had fallen by nearly 90%, Decrypt reported.
Milei deleted the post, denied any link to the project and said he had acted “in good faith”, Al Jazeera reported. Davis has acknowledged holding close to $100 million after the crash and denies wrongdoing, according to the same outlet.
How much left the pools: the figures differ
| Figure | Value | Source |
|---|---|---|
| Withdrawn from the liquidity pool by wallets linked to the team | about $87M | Bubblemaps, via Decrypt |
| Withdrawn by a few wallets linked to the promoters | about $100M | complaint figure recalled in the 23 October 2026 ruling (Ámbito, Perfil, Buenos Aires Herald) |
| Buyers who lost money | more than 40,000 | same (Ámbito, Perfil, Buenos Aires Herald) |
| Wallets with losses | 114,410 | Chamber of Deputies report, Nov 2025 (Perfil) |
| Wallets that gained over $1M each | 36 | Chamber of Deputies report (Perfil) |
| USDC frozen, then released, in New York | $57.6M | Decrypt |
| Libra Trust | about $110M | BAE Negocios, Bitcoin.com News |
The counts do not measure the same thing. Bubblemaps tracked one pool in February 2025, the complaint grouped wallets it linked to the promoters, and the congressional committee counted wallets, not people, so one buyer with several wallets appears more than once.
Timeline of the $LIBRA case, 2024 to 2026
| Date | Event |
|---|---|
| July 2024 | Davis and Bartosz Lipinski enter the Casa Rosada with Karina Milei’s authorisation (Infobae) |
| 14 February 2025 | Milei promotes $LIBRA on X; the price spikes, then collapses within hours |
| March 2025 | Burwick Law files a class action in New York state court; the case moves to federal court |
| May 2025 | Restraining order in New York; $57.6M in USDC frozen |
| August 2025 | Judge Rochon releases the frozen USDC |
| November 2025 | Chamber of Deputies committee publishes its 205-page report |
| 16 March 2026 | Former committee members announce complaints against prosecutor Taiano |
| 3 July 2026 | Judge Martínez De Giorgi removes the victims’ complainants |
| 4 September 2026 | Sala I of the Cámara Federal upholds the removal |
| 16 September 2026 | Investors ask the Cámara de Casación to reinstate them |
| 29 September 2026 | SDNY opinion dismisses the US class action; clerk’s judgment follows on 30 September |
| 23 October 2026 | Sobreseimiento of all eleven defendants in Buenos Aires |
Why “a loss is not a fraud” matters for memecoin buyers
Both courts reached their result without deciding whether insiders profited at buyers’ expense. In Buenos Aires the question was whether any act fit a crime; in New York it was whether the claims met the legal tests for racketeering, fraud and jurisdiction. Neither ruling says the launch was fair, and neither says it was not.
The practical lesson is about where protection comes from. A memecoin sold through a liquidity pool on a wallet senza affidare la custodia dei fondi a una società.">DEX has no prospectus and, often, no identifiable issuer. When the price collapses, buyers must prove a specific deception to win in court. Launchpads such as Pump.fun have made these tokens easy to create, and a single post from a known account can still make or break one, as the Project Kimchi token’s 98% fall this week showed.
In the European Union, MiCA requires a white paper for public offers of crypto-assets and has market-abuse rules, but a memecoin launched on a DEX with no clear issuer is hard to bring within its authorisation regime. National regulators such as France’s AMF and Italy’s Consob can still act on promotion aimed at their residents. Argentina’s case shows the opposite end: once a post is judged “personal”, the rules for public officials no longer apply to it.
Dates to watch
The Cámara de Casación holds the only key left in Argentina: a ruling that reinstated the removed investors would let them challenge the dismissal before it becomes final. No date has been announced.
In New York, the question is whether the plaintiffs take the case to the Second Circuit court of appeals within the federal time limit counted from the 1 October entry of judgment. The Libra Trust’s payout, which Bitcoin.com News expected before November, has not been confirmed either. The full text of the 23 October decision had not been published online by Saturday morning; the reports above cite it from court records.