Why Argentina govt shut down LIBRA investigation unit

The Argentina government shut down the investigation task force assigned to investigate the Libra crypto scandal involving Argentina President Javier Milei and his sister. 

The task force shut down after completing its objective

Argentina’s Ministry of Justice said the Unidad de Tareas de Investigación (UTI) was shut down after its objective was completed. 

The order was signed by President Milei and Justice Minister Mariano Cúneo Libarona. 

The task force had shared its investigation findings with the public prosecutor’s office before being shut down. 

This move comes after an Argentina judge asked the country’s central bank to unseal both the president’s and his sister Karina Milei’s bank accounts. 

Karina is serving as Argentina’s General Secretariat of the Presidency and is a key member of the government. 

The judge also ordered to freeze the finances of three co-founders of Libra. 

Javier and Karina’s role in the memecoin scandal

The Solana-based Libra meme coin was launched by Delaware-based Kelsier Ventures in February. 

Hours after the token was launched, Javier Milei, through an X (formerly called Twitter) post said LIBRA will be used to hold funds for small businesses and startups. 

The funds will be used to bolster the economy, Milei claimed. 

The post contained the token’s website link and contract address on Solana. 

The post triggered a frenzy in the crypto market as traders rushed to buy the tokens. The memecoin’s value exploded to $4.5 billion within a few hours. 

The memecoin then witnessed a huge crash, wiping out 80% of its value. 

After it crashed, Milei deleted the post and claimed that he had no advance knowledge of the token. 

He also said he never intended to induce people to buy the token. 

He said that he just wanted to promote the project as a “super technology enthusiast”.

Later, Hayden Davis, a self-proclaimed facilitator of the Libra token, claimed that he paid Karina to influence her brother before Libra’s launch. 

Davis also said he controlled wallets holding over $100 million made from the launch of Libra.

Retail Investors lose millions, insiders mint money

The crash in Libra caused $251 million in losses to the token’s investors, according to a research firm. 

86% of people who invested in the asset ended up losing money.

On the other hand, a small group of investors made a profit of $180 million from the token. 

A blockchain researcher’s report said that eight crypto wallets withdrew $99 million worth of tokens from Libra’s token liquidity pool. 

Although the identity of the wallets could not be verified, the report said these were the wallets that received tokens directly from Libera’s creators. 

Javier and Karina has been under investigation after the scandal. The scandal was called “CryptoGate” by the local media. 

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