In short
- Phone records show seven calls between Milei and a sponsor of the LIBRA meme coin on its opening night, according to a New York Times report.
- The WhatsApp messages mention a regular salary for Milei since he was in Congress.
- Argentina’s criminal investigation into the attack remains open.
The relationship of the President of Argentina Javier Milei has fallen LIBRA The meme coin may be deeper than it admits, with recent phone logs showing seven phone calls between Milei and the key man behind the brand the night it was launched.
mercy to be promoted and Solana-to take the mark on X in February 2025, sending its market to more than $ 4 billion before that more than 90% damaged in a few hours the insiders drained $87 million.
The collapse cost investors nearly $250 million and led to fraud charges, a congressional investigationand a Federal Criminal Probe which is open.
By June 2025, Argentina’s anti-corruption office to be purified Milei, ruling did it on her own when she wrote about the sign.
According to a New York Times report citing the original news from the cable news channel C5Nthe calls in question were made before and after Milei who was now removed accepts Solana’s trademark at that time.
“The establishment and promotion of LIBRA was not at all a product or an accident of the President,” Maximiliano Ferraro, an opposition lawmaker, told the paper. “It was a planned, coordinated and deliberate operation.”
Behind the scenes
Phone records, obtained during the prosecutor’s investigation, show that calls took place on the night of February 14, 2025, between Milei and Mauricio Novelli, one of the entrepreneurs behind the brand. Novelli also allegedly called two of Milei’s top advisers that night, including the president’s sister Karina Milei, according to the report.
WhatsApp messages recovered from Novelli’s phone point to a financial relationship before the brand.
In another audio message from 2023, Novelli told the agent to spend “2,000 regular for Milei,” calling it a monthly payment, while in another message from April 2024 he mentioned “4,000 that we have to give to Karina,” referring to Milei’s sister. Time.
Documents found on Novelli’s phone described a $1.5 million payment plan linked to Milei’s public speaking. Hayden Davis as an adviser to the president, the report shows.
It is worth noting, however, that no evidence has been found that Milei accepted or received any payment. Argentina’s president has never publicly commented on the phone calls or payslips, and has not been charged in connection with them.
Novelli’s lawyer, meanwhile, told a Time His client “is completely unrelated to any crime” and wants the phone evidence to be excluded, arguing that the device may have been tampered with in prison.
If Milei had already been removed, the new evidence could make them “go back and investigate,” Austin Campbell, founder of crypto risk and compliance advisory firm Zero Knowledge, said. Decryptwhile pointing to the difficulties of doing so.
“Crypto has a huge problem with anonymous payments, promotions, and fraud,” Campbell said. “What we really need is disclosure of such arrangements or payments, with severe civil and criminal penalties for failure to disclose.”
mercy melting a government group that will investigate the matter in May last year. The federal investigation under prosecutor Eduardo Taiano remains open.
Decrypt They have reached the press office in Argentina for comment and will update the story if they respond.
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