Victims of $Libra case bring complaint before Criminal Cassation Chamber
Savers harmed by the cryptocurrency promoted by Milei appeal to the highest criminal court after being excluded from the judicial case.
$Libra case reaches Cassation: investors seek reinstatement as complainants
Savers damaged by the $Libra cryptocurrency turned to the Federal Criminal Cassation Chamber—the country's highest criminal court—after a lower court confirmed their exclusion as complainants in the proceedings investigating responsibilities in the case, according to lapostacomodorense.com.ar.
One of the affected investors, Martín Romeo, filed a cassation appeal against the resolution of Room I of the National Chamber of Criminal and Correctional Federal Appeals, which on 4 September ratified his removal from the case. Through his lawyer, Nicolás Oszust, Romeo requested that this decision be overturned and that he be reinstated as a complaining party.
The appeal challenges the grounds of the second-instance ruling, in which the court argued that there existed "a scenario" that showed "a weakening of the case theory" and that the criminal hypothesis was "diluted" in the face of the evidence required to prove fraud.
Romeo argues that these claims amount to a premature ruling on the merits of the investigation. "Using the excuse that the hypothesis is 'diluted' at this early stage of the inquiry to expel the victims from the proceedings amounts to effectively issuing a true anticipated dismissal of those charged with the fraud offence," states the document presented to Cassation.
The appeal also objects to the Federal Chamber's conclusion that the complainants failed to demonstrate "the specific artifice or false statement" that would have led them to acquire the token, nor the connection between that manoeuvre and the patrimonial damage suffered. Romeo points out that this analysis omitted elements set out in a document of more than 200 pages presented on 5 April of this year, in which the alleged deception mechanism was described as the construction of a "simulated quality" and an "appearance of a business", as well as the use of presidential authority to generate confidence.
One of the most concrete points of the appeal indicates that 74 wallets linked by the complaint to those charged made bulk purchases 22 seconds before the publication of the presidential message about $Libra. Subsequently, the submission states, there occurred a withdrawal of funds that the complaint quantifies at 14.5 million dollars in that phase of the operation.
Romeo also argued that the Chamber itself had previously recognised the complainants' standing and that no subsequent technical evidence emerged that justified changing this situation.
Origins of the case
On Friday, 14 February 2025, at 19:01 local time, President Javier Milei published a message on his social media accounts in which he recommended investing in $Libra, a digital currency without backing created three minutes earlier and with 82 per cent of its circulating supply concentrated in five digital wallets.
Following the publication, the token's price rose from 0.01 cents to 4.7 dollars. However, hours later the main holders withdrew approximately 100 million dollars, which caused an abrupt collapse in the value of the cryptocurrency. In the early hours of Saturday, 15 February, Milei deleted his message and claimed he was unaware of the project.
Various judicial investigations are examining the alleged responsibilities in the case, including in the United States, where a class action lawsuit was filed bringing together more than 200 claimants, according to Sputnik.
Source: Google News AR — Crime