Milei LIBRA case dismissed as judge clears sister and nine others

Key takeaways

• Federal judge Marcelo Martínez de Giorgi dismissed the LIBRA memecoin fraud case against President Javier Milei, his sister Karina Milei and nine others on Friday, October 23, 2026, ruling that the reported events were not a crime.
• The judge acted at the request of prosecutor Eduardo Taiano, who had asked for all defendants to be cleared; no defendant was ever summoned for formal questioning.
• Investors who had joined the case as private complainants were removed earlier this year, so no party currently has standing to appeal, although complaint appeals are reported to be pending before Argentina's top criminal appeals court.
• In the United States, a federal judge in New York dismissed an investor class action over LIBRA in September 2026.
• Milei called the case a "political and media operation"; opposition figures criticised the ruling for closing the file without questioning anyone.

The Milei LIBRA case is over at first instance: federal judge Marcelo Martínez de Giorgi dismissed the memecoin fraud case against President Javier Milei, his sister Karina Milei and nine others on October 23, 2026, ruling the events were not a crime.

What the judge decided in the Milei LIBRA case

Judge Marcelo Martínez de Giorgi, of Federal Criminal and Correctional Court No. 8 in Buenos Aires, issued a sobreseimiento, a dismissal that formally ends the suspicion against the accused. He used the broadest ground in Argentina's criminal procedure code: the facts under investigation do not fit any criminal offence, as reported by Infobae and Perfil. Al Jazeera quoted the ruling as saying the reported events "do not constitute a criminal offence."

The decision covers Javier Milei, Karina Milei, US businessman Hayden Davis, who described himself as an adviser to the launch, and eight other people, including Argentine businessmen who investigators had said linked the token's promoters to the presidential circle. The court ordered the file archived once the ruling becomes final.

Why the court found no fraud

According to Infobae's account of the ruling, the judge said prosecutors would have needed to show a concrete deceptive act, an error it caused in buyers, and direct financial harm. He found no specific false statement. He described memecoins as highly volatile assets and said a loss on its own is not a crime.

Al Jazeera reported that the judge accepted that Milei's position as president may have given the launch "greater impact", but said this did not prove a fraudulent scheme. Perfil reported that he compared the post to a president attending the opening of a factory.

The evidence the judge rejected

• Milei's post: relying on the Anti-Corruption Office, the court held that the post came from a personal account, used no public resources and was not an act of government. That ended the abuse-of-authority and incompatible-negotiations counts (Infobae).
• Karina Milei: the judge found no proof that she asked for or received money to arrange meetings. Her authorisation for Davis to enter the Casa Rosada in July 2024 was not, on its own, evidence of an illegal deal (Infobae, iProfesional).
• Phone records and draft deal: a note on a businessman's phone referring to a "final agreement" with "H" and an unsigned draft contract lacked evidentiary value, because forensic experts could not show they were sent or accepted. Perfil reported that the judge also said a leak of reserved material from the phone analysis weakened the chain of custody.

Reactions: Milei, the government and the opposition

Milei wrote on X that the courts had exposed a "political and media operation" against his presidency, and asked who would compensate him for "a year, eight months and nine days of lies, slander and insults", La Nación reported. In a post carried by EFE, he ended: "The truth always ends up prevailing." He also singled out the newspaper La Nación and some of its journalists for using the case against the government.

The Office of the President called the ruling "absolute proof of his innocence" on X, according to Al Jazeera, and described the case as a "sad media circus", according to La Nación. Economy Minister Luis Caputo and Deregulation Minister Federico Sturzenegger praised the decision on social media (EFE via Infobae).

Several opposition figures criticised the ruling on Friday afternoon, La Nación reported, without the paper naming them. Their objections were that the judge closed the case before some evidence requests were completed, without calling any defendant to testify, and after the affected investors had been removed as complainants.

What happens to the rest of the LIBRA case

In Argentina. The dismissal is not yet final. Perfil reported that it is expected to become final within days, because the prosecutor asked for it and will not appeal, and because there are no complainants left. On July 3 the judge, at the defence's request, removed the investors who had been acting as private complainants, and Chamber I of the Federal Appeals Court confirmed that on September 4. In the ruling the judge acknowledged there is no "autonomous accusatory claim" to keep the case alive. Infobae, however, reported that direct complaint appeals (recursos de queja) are pending before the Federal Court of Criminal Cassation. If that court reinstates the investors, they could try to challenge the dismissal. No ruling on those appeals had been reported as of October 24.

In Congress. A Chamber of Deputies investigative commission chaired by Maximiliano Ferraro of the Civic Coalition published a 205-page report in November 2025, signed by 15 opposition deputies. It described a planned fraud scheme, attributed a "decisive" role to the Milei siblings and recommended assessing possible misconduct by the president, according to Perfil. The court ruling does not mention that report.

In the United States. In September 2026, US District Judge Jennifer Rochon in New York dismissed the investor class action brought against Davis, Kelsier Ventures and others over LIBRA and a second token, M3M3, Protos and Infobae reported. Protos said the dismissal was with prejudice and leave to amend was refused. The judge found the racketeering claims did not show a continuing pattern, and that New York courts lacked personal jurisdiction over the Kelsier defendants. Because the jurisdiction finding did not decide the underlying allegations, TokenPost noted that plaintiffs may appeal or sue in a court that has jurisdiction.

LIBRA by the numbers

Timeline: from the LIBRA launch to the dismissal

What it means

For Milei, the ruling removes the most serious legal cloud over his presidency. It comes as his government points to monthly inflation of around 2%, according to Al Jazeera. It is a narrow result, though. The court did not find that LIBRA buyers were treated fairly. It found that the evidence did not meet the legal definition of fraud or of official misconduct. The congressional report and the critics' complaints about how the case was closed mean the political argument will continue.

For crypto markets, the case shows how hard it is to win criminal or civil claims over a memecoin collapse. Buyers on both sides of the Americas have so far recovered nothing in court. The two remaining routes are the pending appeals in Argentina and any new US filing in a court with jurisdiction. Readers who want the technical background on the network LIBRA ran on can see our Solana Alpenglow explainer. People who lost money in collapses like this are often targeted next by crypto recovery scams and pig-butchering investment schemes. For more on Milei's domestic politics, see our report on Argentina's education budget protests.

Sources

• Al Jazeera: Argentinian judge drops fraud investigation into Milei over crypto scandal (Oct 24, 2026)
• Infobae: La Justicia sobreseyó al presidente Javier Milei y a su hermana Karina en la causa $LIBRA (Oct 23, 2026)
• EFE via Infobae: Milei celebra su sobreseimiento en causa por caso $LIBRA (Oct 23, 2026)
• La Nación: Milei habló tras el sobreseimiento por la causa $LIBRA (Oct 23, 2026)
• Perfil: Causa $LIBRA, las claves del fallo que sobreseyó a Javier y Karina Milei
• iProfesional: Del tuit de Milei al sobreseimiento de todos los acusados
• The Block: Argentina's president disbands unit probing LIBRA memecoin scandal (May 20, 2025)
• Buenos Aires Times: Prosecutor probes Milei assets in LIBRA 'cryptogate' case (Mar 27, 2025)
• Protos: Burwick Law loses LIBRA lawsuit against Hayden Davis
• TokenPost: Court dismisses most LIBRA lawsuit claims for lack of jurisdiction (Oct 5, 2026)

This article is for information only and is not investment advice.