Argentina’s parliamentary commission of inquiry, chaired by opposition Javier Milei, released its report on Tuesday on the cryptocurrency issue that the president promoted in X in February, which ended in “alleged fraud.” The House of Representatives Commission, despite having limited powers, considered in its report that “the facts analyzed may be consistent with allegations of fraud”, and “the political responsibility of Javier Milei and Karina Milei”, his sister and secretary general of the presidency.
After this “first stage of investigation”, it returns to Parliament to “evaluate whether the president has committed violations in carrying out his functions”. In mid-February, Javier Milei floated his cryptocurrency project, $LIBRA, at X before pulling it back hours later. Meanwhile, the currency soared and then collapsed, according to the opposition, causing losses of several million dollars to local and foreign players.
According to the commission’s research, more than 114,000 virtual wallets experienced losses, 500 of which were worth more than $100,000, while 36 of them gained more than a million each.
Javier Milei has always denied “promoting” cryptocurrencies, arguing that as a “tech fanatic” he wanted to give visibility to projects that would likely finance Argentinian tech SMEs. Afterwards, seeing the rumors, he withdrew, realizing that he “didn’t know the details of the project.”
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Dozens of complaints have been filed by organizations or individuals, targeting in particular the president of Argentina and the actors of the $LIBRA project, and some of them in the United States. They are centralized by a judge and prosecutor, who are in charge of the investigation.
The parliamentary committee said it had submitted its conclusions to the court to support the investigation. But he also said he intended to file complaints against several members of the executive and judiciary because, he said, of obstacles or lack of collaboration with the commission.
Criminal investigations aside, the future of parliamentary action on the Libra case remains uncertain. After his victory in the legislative by-elections at the end of October, Javier Milei will have the benefit of the new Parliament – which was inaugurated on December 10 – and thus not be too forced to follow up on the case.
The deputies could hear in $LIBRA the former head of the cabinet of ministers, Guillermo Francos, who has confirmed that Javier Milei has “no relationship” with $LIBRA, and that at any state level there are “no agreements or benefits” associated with the project. But they couldn’t force Javier or Karina Milei’s hearing.
