Argentine Lawmakers Push to Remove Federal Prosecutor From Libra Probe

Argentine opposition lawmakers moved on March 17, 2026, to seek the removal of federal prosecutor Eduardo Taiano from the criminal investigation into the $LIBRA crypto scandal, arguing that the case has stalled despite new leaked evidence tied to President Javier Milei. The push adds a fresh institutional clash to a probe that has already produced asset freezes, a congressional inquiry and competing claims of obstruction.

The dispute matters beyond Argentine politics. The $LIBRA case sits at the intersection of crypto promotion, public-office ethics and cross-border enforcement. For readers tracking digital-asset regulation, the immediate question is not only whether Taiano stays on the case, but whether Argentina’s judicial and legislative branches can still produce a credible record after more than a year of controversy. Publicly available documents show the investigation has continued in court, yet opposition lawmakers now say the pace and scope of that work are insufficient. That tension is the core of the story.

March 17 Filing Threat Puts Eduardo Taiano at the Center

El País reported on March 17, 2026, that opposition deputies who had served on the congressional $LIBRA commission planned to file a complaint against Taiano before the disciplinary tribunal of Argentina’s Public Prosecutor’s Office. Their stated goal was to have him removed from the case. The lawmakers accused him of obstructing the investigation and raised the possibility of a cover-up after leaked case documents surfaced in recent days.

Those leaked materials, as described by El País and separate reporting from El País and HuffPost, included records of calls involving project promoters and a draft document referring to an alleged US$5 million arrangement tied to support for the token project. Those reports describe the material as part of the judicial documentation published by local media, not as a final court finding. That distinction matters: the existence of leaked documents is verified by multiple outlets, but the allegations inside them remain unproven in court.

The lawmakers’ move also follows frustration with the earlier congressional inquiry. Argentina’s Chamber of Deputies said on November 18, 2025 that the commission completed its work, but the opposition report did not secure enough support to be elevated to the full chamber. In practical terms, that left the criminal case under the judiciary as the main live institutional track.

323,275 USDT Freeze Shows the Judicial File Is Still Moving

The strongest verified sign that the criminal investigation remains active comes from Argentina’s Public Prosecutor’s Office. In a February 13, 2026 statement, Fiscales.gob.ar said Judge María Servini ordered the freezing of cryptoassets totaling US$323,275 in USDT held in two virtual addresses. The measure was requested by Taiano together with the Secretariat for Financial Investigation and Illicit Asset Recovery and the asset-recovery directorate.

That amount is far smaller than the roughly US$100 million to US$110 million figures cited in March 2025 media reports about broader freeze requests linked to the case. Still, the February 2026 order is more authoritative because it comes directly from the prosecutor’s office and identifies a concrete judicial measure already granted. It also provides a timeline link: prosecutors said the wallet activity they traced was concentrated between early December 2024 and February 2025, beginning weeks after the Tech Forum Argentina 2024 event and ending in the month of the token launch.

In other words, critics say the case is too slow, while official records show at least some asset-tracing and preservation work has continued. Both facts can be true at once. The political fight is over whether those steps are proportionate to the seriousness of the allegations.

Why 2025 Decisions Still Shape the 2026 Fight

The present clash cannot be separated from decisions taken in 2025. First, the executive branch created a special UTI task force to gather information on $LIBRA, then dissolved it on May 20, 2025 after saying the material had been forwarded to prosecutors. Buenos Aires Times and CoinDesk both reported that the closure was formalized through Decree 332/2025. That move concentrated expectations on the Public Prosecutor’s Office and the federal courts.

Second, Congress opened its own inquiry on April 8, 2025. Official records from the Chamber of Deputies confirm the commission’s creation, and chamber press releases show it continued gathering evidence through November 2025. One official release from November 7, 2025 said a technical report added to the file identified more than 140,000 wallets that had operated with the cryptocurrency and 36 wallets with gains above US$1 million. Those figures came from material incorporated into the commission’s record, not from a final judicial ruling, but they helped frame the scale of the alleged harm.

Third, the commission’s inability to move its final report to the full chamber left opposition lawmakers with fewer parliamentary tools. That helps explain why the latest escalation is aimed at Taiano’s role in the criminal file rather than at reopening the same legislative route.

What the Removal Bid Could Change in the Next 30 Days

If opposition deputies formally submit the disciplinary complaint, the immediate issue becomes procedural: whether the Public Prosecutor’s internal oversight bodies take up the request and whether any interim action affects Taiano’s control of the file. Public reporting available as of March 20, 2026 confirms the announcement of the move, but not a final disciplinary outcome.

For crypto markets, the case is less about token pricing now than about enforcement precedent. The $LIBRA affair has already generated judicial asset-freeze orders, legislative scrutiny and allegations involving the use of presidential visibility to promote a private token project. A successful effort to remove the lead prosecutor would deepen questions about institutional credibility. A failed effort, by contrast, would likely increase pressure on Taiano to show faster investigative progress.

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Conclusion

The latest move by Argentine lawmakers does not end the $LIBRA investigation, but it raises the stakes around who controls it. Verified records show a live criminal file, a concluded congressional inquiry and a government task force that was shut down after transferring information to prosecutors. The next phase now hinges on whether the disciplinary push against Taiano gains traction and whether the judiciary responds with visible new steps. For US readers following crypto enforcement, the case is a reminder that political accountability and digital-asset investigations can become inseparable once public officials are drawn into token promotion.