Federal Judge Marcelo Martínez de Giorgi on Friday dismissed the case against President Javier Milei and his sister, presidential chief-of-staff Karina Milei, over the launch and collapse of the ‘$LIBRA’ cryptocurrency.
The ruling also cleared Mauricio Novelli, Manuel Terrones Godoy, Sergio Morales, Hayden Davis, Julian Peh, María Pía Novelli, María Alicia Rafaele, Camilo Rodríguez Blanco and Orlando Mellino.
Martínez de Giorgi ruled that the alleged acts “do not fall within any legally defined offence”. He also stated that the proceedings did not affect the “good name and honour” of any of the 11 defendants.
The decision came a year and eight months after Milei promoted the “Viva la Libertad” project and the $LIBRA contract in a post on his X account on 14 February 2025. Its price rose from cents to nearly US$5, before collapsing within hours. According to the ruling, a handful of wallets withdrew around US$100 million, while more than 40,000 buyers lost money.
None of the defendants was summoned to give formal testimony as a suspect in the case. The judge argued that this was unnecessary, as anyone under suspicion has the right to a ruling that “permanently dispels the state of suspicion.”
Who’s who
Novelli is the link connecting all the names in the case file. The founder of N&W Professional Traders, an academy, where Milei taught economics before entering politics, Novelli was identified in the investigation and by a lower house investigative congressional committee as the person who introduced the token’s creator, Hayden Mark Davis, to the President’s inner circle.
Together with Terrones Godoy, Novelli organised the Tech Forum, held at the Libertador Hotel in October 2024, where Milei met Julian Peh, Davis’s business partner in the token launch. Morales, an adviser to the board of the National Securities Commission (CNV), was Terrones Godoy’s business partner.
The ruling describes a document found on Novelli’s phone featuring an “irrevocable offer” from Kelsier, Davis’ company, that was addressed to Novelli, Terrones Godoy and Morales. It presented them as “referrers,” tasked with securing an “indirect partnership with the Argentine Government.”
Official records show that Davis entered the Casa Rosada presidential palace in July 2024 with authorisation from Karina Milei, and returned in November for a visit that coincided with Novelli.
Novelli also visited the Olivos presidential residence at least three times that year.
No fraud, no deception
The key to the ruling lies in the legal definition of fraud. Martínez de Giorgi agreed with federal prosecutor Eduardo Taiano that there was no evidence of “criminally relevant deception.”
His argument was that the project existed, the companies were real, transactions were recorded on the blockchain and no returns had been guaranteed. The prestige of the Presidency may have given the token “greater reach and visibility,” the judge said, but that did not amount to a fraudulent scheme.
The sequence of promotion, price surge and collapse did not “in itself” demonstrate a planned operation. The ruling goes further, suggesting that Milei’s post “appears” to highlight the effects of official policies on markets and comparing it to “the President’s presence at the inauguration of a factory.”
To support his decision, the judge cited two developments in the United States. The US Department of Justice blocked Argentina’s request for legal assistance, considering the links between the people under investigation and the alleged offences insufficient.
On September 29, a federal court in New York also dismissed a civil lawsuit against Kelsier Labs. In Davis’ case, the dismissal was based on a lack of jurisdiction.
As for Milei, the ruling also dismissed allegations of abuse of authority and incompatible negotiations, relying on an opinion from the Anti-Corruption Office. The agency had previously concluded that the post, published from a personal account without the use of public resources, did not constitute an official act of government.
What was on Novelli’s phone
The ruling lists the most sensitive evidence uncovered in the investigation, dismissing its significance point by point.
Two deleted conversations with a contact saved as “Karina Milei PR” were found on Novelli’s phone, along with call records involving the President, the content of which could not be established.
Investigators also found a note reading “this is the final agreement as discussed with H” and another referring to a sum of money to be paid to Javier Milei and Karina Milei.
There was also an “irrevocable offer” from Kelsier Group, dated November 2024, proposing an “indirect partnership with the Government” and dialogue with the Milei siblings.
The judge concluded that these elements did not prove that an agreement had been finalised: the offer was unsigned, and the notes could not be linked to any communication sent to third parties.
Regarding influence-peddling allegations against Karina Milei, the ruling said the only documentary evidence was that she had authorised Davis and Bartosz Lipinski to enter the Casa Rosada in July 2024. Taken “in isolation,” the judge said, this did not establish an illicit exchange.
The ruling also acknowledges a problem with the investigation itself. An internal inquiry by the Attorney General’s Office found that an employee of DATIP, the department responsible for analysing seized phones, had improperly accessed confidential case documents and that some of that material subsequently reached the press.
According to the judge, this compromised the chain of custody and undermined the evidential value of the reports. Those reports contained some of the investigation’s most damaging findings.
The investigation into Novelli’s safety-deposit boxes also came to nothing. Records and video footage showed his mother and sister entering the premises around the time of the token launch, but the boxes were empty when they were searched
Report ignored
The dismissal also leaves the work of the Chamber of Deputies’ investigative committee without any judicial effect.
The committee, chaired by Maximiliano Ferraro of the Civic Coalition, presented a 205-page report in November 2025, signed by 15 opposition lawmakers. It described a “planned fraud scheme” and attributed a “decisive role, through action or omission” to both Javier and Karina Milei.
It also noted that the President had never explained how he obtained the token’s contract address, which was not public when he posted it, and that the General Secretariat of the Presidency had authorised visits by business figures linked to the launch.
According to the committee’s findings, 114,410 wallets recorded losses, while 36 made profits of more than US$1 million each.
The report recommended assessing whether the President had committed misconduct in office and accused Martínez de Giorgi and Taiano of systematically refusing to co-operate with the parliamentary investigation. Neither of the Milei siblings nor the officials summoned appeared before the committee to testify.
Almost one year on, none of this features in the 60-page ruling. The decision does not mention the congressional report and closes the case with the same conclusion reached by the prosecutor.
Appointment of Ana Juan
The ruling has also renewed scrutiny of a recent appointment that drew criticism from the opposition.
On July 15, Milei’s government published Decree 589/2026 in the Official Gazette, signed by Milei and Justice Minister Juan Bautista Mahiques. It appointed Ana Juan, the wife of Martínez de Giorgi, to head the Federal Court of First Instance in Hurlingham.
Her nomination had been sent to the Senate by former president Mauricio Macri and withdrawn twice, first by Alberto Fernández and then by Milei himself when he took office. It has, however, succeeded on the third attempt.
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