Assets connected to the LIBRA memecoin controversy, which President Milei supported, have been frozen by Argentine judge Marcelo Giorgi.
Judge Giorgi imposed a “prohibition of innovation” on Hayden Davis’s and two cryptocurrency operators’ real estate and financial assets.
The President’s support for LIBRA
The precautionary “prohibition of innovation” policy has also been in place for an extended period of time, according to local media sources.
Additionally, Orlando Mellino of Argentina and Favio Rodriguez of Colombia have been identified as the two cryptocurrency operators. Both seem to be the owners of cryptocurrency wallets that have shown questionable activity and are presently being investigated by the courts.
Eduardo Taino, a federal prosecutor, asked for the precaution. Taino’s request is supported by a technical report from the Public Prosecutor’s Office’s General Directorate for Asset Recovery and Forfeiture of Goods and Secretariat for Financial Investigation and the Recovery of Illicit Assets. Its leaders, Maria Bergalli and Maria Chena, signed the report.
The report’s request to protect assets that could be the profits of the fraud against hundreds of investors was approved by Federal Judge Giorgi. Investors are said to have lost between $100 and $120 million.
Due to their role as middlemen in crypto-to-fiat conversion activities, Rodriguez and Mellino have been included in the judicial proceedings. The suspected money trail reportedly included multimillion-dollar cryptocurrency transactions between Davis and the two Argentines engaged in the LIBRA investigation, Mauricio Novelli and Manuel Godoy.
The family
Additionally, Rodriguez helped access a safety deposit box that belonged to Novelli. Hours after LIBRA failed, Novelli’s mother and sister are said to have taken luggage out of a Banco Galicia location.
The judge came to the conclusion that the legal standards of plausibility and the risk of delay were satisfied. Giorgi explained that he is keeping the proceeds of crime from being consolidated because there is a chance that the persons under investigation would sell the cryptocurrency under suspicion before the case is resolved.
Other developments
A U.S. judge was informed by cryptocurrency entrepreneur Hayden Davis that the LIBRA token was only a memecoin and not a financed initiative with a well-defined business strategy. Davis and his associates are accused of deceiving investors by exaggerating the token’s introduction.
In the upcoming year, Argentina plans to implement new policies that will probably have an effect on the cryptocurrency industry as well.
President Julier Milei of Argentina last year unveiled plans for a free currency circulation policy for 2025 that would allow transactions in bitcoin and different currencies.
The judge further stressed that the ban on innovation will be in place for as long as it is strictly required to achieve the process’s goals. He mandated that the National Security Commission (CNV) be informed of his decision so that it can notify the virtual asset service provider (VASP) and expand the block to all cryptocurrency platforms that are active in Argentina.