Argentine Themis has dealt a serious blow to the participants in the high-profile LIBRA token case. Federal Judge Marcelo Martinez de Giorgi, at the request of prosecutor Eduardo Taiano, has ordered the immediate freezing of 25 crypto wallets directly linked to this notorious project.
Scope of the Operation and Investigation Targets
The freeze covers assets on six international trading platforms. According to the investigation materials, this involves ten addresses on Binance, eight on Bybit, two on OKX, two on CoinEx, one on FixedFloat, and two more on Bitfinex. The judge has instructed each of these platforms not only to freeze the funds but also to provide a complete data package on the account holders. The requirements include standard KYC procedures (documents, internal records, IP addresses), as well as linked bank accounts and a comprehensive history of all transactions.
The reason for such stringent measures is the lack of a clear cryptocurrency regulator in Argentina. The court ruling emphasizes that this preventive freeze is necessary to avoid irreparable harm to the investigation. The key objective is to prevent the withdrawal or concealment of assets that may be deemed proceeds of crime and to ensure their potential recovery.
Technical Background and Money Laundering Scheme
A technical report from the cybercrime division of the Argentine Federal Police (PFA) played a decisive role in uncovering the scheme. Specialists reconstructed the flow of funds using reverse tracing and open-source intelligence (OSINT) analysis.
Assets were moved from a group of wallets labeled as Team Libra Wallets. Between February 14 and 15, 2025, millions of tokens were transferred from these wallets, which then ended up in a common intermediate wallet. Subsequently, the investigation recorded a large withdrawal. On May 10, 2026, 498,539.85 USDT arrived at a wallet on the Tron network via a compatibility protocol. Notably, the entire operation was completed in just 16 seconds without the involvement of a traditional exchange.
After this, a classic "smurfing" scheme was launched — daily splitting of large sums into numerous small wallets to maximize tracking difficulty. It all began with President Milei's post on social network X on February 14, 2025. Following this, the token's price skyrocketed from $0.01 to nearly $5 within hours, only to crash amid mass sell-offs by the project's creators.
According to the investigation's estimates, over 40,000 people fell victim to the scandal, with the fund outflow amounting to approximately $100 million. Among the accused are lobbyist Mauricio Novelli, his partner, and American citizen Hayden Davis.
My comment as an analyst: This case is a stark example of how the lack of transparent regulation, combined with political PR, creates an ideal environment for manipulation and "rug pull" schemes. Requesting data from six major exchanges simultaneously is a precedent-setting step, demonstrating that even decentralized assets are not completely anonymous when a coordinated international investigation comes into play. Investors should remember: hype surrounding the person behind a project does not guarantee its legitimacy.