Argentina is reopening its investigation into President Milei over the LIBRA scandal. The first commission, created in April, faced bureaucratic and Congressional hurdles and was unable to operate properly.
Milei, however, now faces new corruption scandals largely unrelated to crypto. These enabled a new political coalition to forcibly reopen the investigation, which should continue through the October elections.
Milei’s Alleged LIBRA Involvement
The LIBRA pump and dump was a massive scandal for Argentina, but the search for answers and justice seemingly hit a low point recently.
President Milei dissolved the Task Force investigating his involvement in May, and US-based prosecutions also stalled this month. However, Argentina’s opposition is reopening investigations into Milei’s LIBRA dealings:
“The Justice Department is investigating, and we hope it truly has confidence, doesn’t fear, and acts quickly in the LIBRA case. Was there or wasn’t there insider trading at the highest levels of power? I don’t want to jump to conclusions, because this is an investigative commission,” claimed Maximiliano Ferraro, a legislator from Civic Coalition ARI, who is heading this new body.
Although this investigation directly concerns the LIBRA scandal, Milei’s unrelated controversies apparently triggered it. Specifically, a new incident concerns some leaked phone recordings from Diego Spagnuolo, Milei’s former attorney and a government official.
In these recordings, he claimed that the President and his sister Karina directly engaged in bribery. Spagnuolo himself admitted that the phone calls were genuine.
This caused an unprecedented scandal for Milei’s administration, leading crowds of citizens to literally pelt the President with lettuce and other rubbish yesterday. No injuries were reported.
Argentina’s next elections will take place in October. It’s easy to see how this bribery scandal has given the meme coin investigation a new breath of life.
Javier Milei just DESTROYED the memecoin market:
Hours ago, Argentinian President Milei launched a memecoin, $LIBRA, for “the growth of their economy.”
Within 5 hours, over -$4.4 BILLION of market cap was erased.
Is this the biggest rug pull in history?
(a thread) pic.twitter.com/t4T69r851d
— The Kobeissi Letter (@KobeissiLetter) February 15, 2025
Prosecutors found convincing evidence linking Milei and his sister to the LIBRA scandal, but Congressional opposition and bureaucratic roadblocks put the proceedings on hold.
Today, by contrast, five parties representing 136 of the Chamber of Deputies’ 257 legislators are ready to resume this contest. Several of Milei’s allies strenuously opposed this measure, but they apparently don’t have the strength to block the investigation.
In other words, the LIBRA scandal weighs heavily on Argentina’s crypto community, but it’s just one component of this push against Milei. This commission has given itself a deadline of November 10 to produce reports on its conclusions, which will be well after the next elections.
Overall, the scandal could prove seriously damaging for Milei and his political future.
