Investor appeals dismissal of Milei in $LIBRA crypto case, citing $13.5M in pre-promotion trades

For anyone tracking how political power and speculative capital intersect in South America, Argentina's $LIBRA affair has just produced its most consequential procedural turn. An investor who lost money when the memecoin collapsed is fighting to keep the case alive, appealing a ruling that cleared President Javier Milei, his sister and chief of staff Karina Milei, and nine other defendants. The appeal matters less for what it proves than for what it refuses to let rest: the question of whether a presidential social media post and a cluster of crypto trades were connected.

The filing comes from Juan Patricio Marchetto, represented by lawyer and lawmaker Juan Grabois and Nicolás Rechanik. Their 40-page challenge targets the conduct of federal judge Marcelo Martínez de Giorgi and prosecutor Eduardo Taiano. Last Friday the judge ordered the case closed and archived once the ruling becomes final, accepting the prosecutor's request to dismiss proceedings against all 11 defendants. None of them had been summoned to give formal statements as suspects — a detail that cuts to the heart of the appeal.

The investigation examined suspected fraud and possible financial offences around $LIBRA, a memecoin Milei promoted in a post on X on 14 February 2025. The token's value surged, then collapsed, triggering allegations that investors had been defrauded and raising questions about the president's role in promoting it. Among those cleared were businessman Mauricio Novelli, linked to the project; US entrepreneur Hayden Mark Davis; and Sergio Morales, a former adviser to the National Securities Commission. For outsiders, the names sketch a familiar Argentine network: private promoters, foreign crypto operators and regulators occupying the same orbit.

Marchetto's core argument is that the judge mistook thin evidence for the absence of a crime, weighed the record selectively and leaned on inadequate reasoning. He points to telephone records showing communications between Milei and Novelli in the minutes before the presidential post — Novelli allegedly made three calls to Milei and received another from the president shortly before the message appeared. The appeal also cites 87 transactions across 74 cryptocurrency wallets, involving roughly US$13.5 million, recorded seconds before Milei shared the code to purchase the token. Those threads, he argues, should have been examined together to test whether the launch's backers and the president coordinated.

There is a procedural catch that could sink the effort before any higher court weighs the substance. Marchetto was previously removed from the proceedings as a private prosecutor, a decision upheld by a federal court, and his status remains under review by Argentina's Federal Court of Criminal Cassation. If he is recognised as having standing, a higher court could review the dismissal before the case is sealed for good.

Why should a wealth reader outside Argentina care? Because the case has become a test of how far a sitting president's promotional megaphone can overlap with private crypto fortunes — and whether courts are willing to trace the money behind the posts. Argentina's economy has spent years courting foreign capital and crypto experimentation alike; the credibility of that pitch depends on whether allegations of this kind get a full evidentiary hearing or are archived on procedural grounds. The appeal also asks for further investigation into where the funds went and for forensic examinations of electronic devices tied to other figures in the case.

Expect the cassation court's standing decision to set the tempo. If Marchetto clears that gate, a higher court inherits a case the lower court wanted closed — and Argentina's experiment in presidential crypto promotion gets the scrutiny it has so far avoided.