Prosecutor probes Milei assets in ‘$LIBRA’ Cryptogate case

Federal prosecutor Eduardo Taiano is gathering information regarding the assets of President Javier Milei, his sister Karina Milei and three businessmen under investigation in the ‘$LIBRA’ cryptocurrency case.

Taiano is in charge of the accusations presented in connection with the launch and promotion of the $LIBRA token and requires specialised assistance. To that end, he has enlisted the assistance of the SIFRAI (Secretaría para la Investigación Financiera y el Recupero de Activos Ilícitos) office to "gather the information to analyse the evolution of the assets of Javier Gerardo Milei, Karina Elizabeth Milei, Mauricio Gaspar Novelli, Manuel Terrones Godoy and Sergio Daniel Morales from 2023 to the present."

Veteran federal judge María Servini de Cubría has delegated the investigation to Taiano but her jurisdiction is also being challenged by San Isidro federal judge Sandra Arroyo Salgado.

Since Milei posted the $LIBRA launch on February 14 from his X account at the Olivos presidential residence, Arroyo Salgado says it lies within judicial turf. The San Isidro magistrate is actively seeking evidence to trace the President’s operations that evening and beyond but her decision is being appealed by San Isidro federal prosecutor Federico Iuspa, who considers that the case should stay within the Retiro federal courthouse.

Arroyo Salgado has also widened the investigation to the following Monday (February 17) based on testimony from one of the plaintiffs, Martín Romeo, who says that at 1.56pm on that day Milei had retweeted a post linked to the cryptocurrency originating from Darío Epstein. The magistrate has asked the X social network’s authorities to corroborate that information.

The San Isidro judge has also asked for special assistance from a tech crimes unit "to trace the movements of the wallets of cryptocurrencies linked to the creation of the $LIBRA from February 14 up to the present in order to establish the destination of the funds in possession of their creators.:

“The movements of the funds of the main accounts behind the creation of the $LIBRA and of the wallets considered to be insiders and presumably counting on privileged information should be monitored in real time in order to establish if there are any links between them and also to conclusively identify the owners,” she ruled.

– TIMES/NA