tl;dr
Argentina’s Anti-Corruption Office cleared President Javier Milei of ethics violations after he promoted the Solana-based LIBRA memecoin in February. The office ruled Milei’s social media post was a personal statement, not an official government announcement, and therefore did not breach ethics laws...
Argentina’s Anti-Corruption Office has cleared President Javier Milei of ethics violations related to his promotion of the Solana-based LIBRA memecoin in February. The office ruled that Milei’s social media post was a personal statement rather than an official endorsement, and therefore did not breach ethics laws. The investigation arose after LIBRA’s value spiked and crashed following Milei’s post, which he deleted within hours.
Milei maintained he acted in good faith to raise awareness about supporting Argentine businesses through cryptocurrency. However, public trust declined amid allegations of insider trading and connections between Milei’s family and LIBRA’s creators. The Anti-Corruption Office emphasized that Milei’s post was from his personal X (formerly Twitter) account and was unrelated to official government activity, involving no public resources or government policy announcements.
The LIBRA scandal unfolded when Milei published a post describing the project as “dedicated to stimulating the growth of the Argentine economy by funding small businesses and Argentine entrepreneurs.” The token’s price surged to about $5 immediately after but then plummeted by around 95%, causing significant investor losses and contributing to a stock market crash days later. After social uproar and allegations, Milei clarified he had no ties to the project and deleted the original post.
The Anti-Corruption Office’s resolution pointed out that Milei’s account identifies him as an economist, not a public official, and the post was a personal opinion protected under the constitution. It stated that the message did not refer to public policies, government programs, or official decisions with legal or budgetary consequences. Although cleared by the Anti-Corruption Office, a federal court continues to investigate the matter, having frozen assets of Milei and his sister as part of the ongoing probe.