$Libra crypto scandal: Five million US dollar contract surfaces

In Argentina, a document has surfaced that could put President Javier Milei in a difficult position regarding the $Libra cryptocurrency scandal. Forensic experts discovered a suspected agreement for five million US dollars on the mobile phone of businessman Mauricio Novelli – intended as payment for Milei's support of the project. The Argentine news portal El Destape revealed this over the weekend.

The document was found in a notes app on Novelli's mobile phone. Although it had been deleted, investigators managed to recover the file. Novelli is considered one of the intermediaries between the initiators of the $Libra cryptocurrency – including US businessman Hayden Davis, head of the family-run venture capital firm Kelsier Ventures – and President Milei's inner circle.

No evidence, many indications

The text outlines three payments: an initial advance of 1.5 million US dollars; a second payment of the same amount, which was to be made once “Milei announces on Twitter that his advisor is Hayden Davis/Kelsier/the Davis family”; and a final payment of two million US dollars, the disbursement of which was tied to a “contract personally signed with Milei for blockchain/AI consulting services for the Argentine government and/or Javier Milei, as well as meeting appointments with Javier and Karina.” Karina Milei is the president's sister and her brother's closest advisor.

While there is no evidence that the alleged agreement was implemented, the sum of five million US dollars mentioned in it matches the volume of digital wallet transfers detected by forensic IT specialists, writes the Spanish daily El País. Above all, the document now found increasingly places the Argentine president, who had promoted the project through his social media channels, at the center of the $Libra cryptocurrency fraud. Especially since telephone connection data also came to light over the weekend, proving more than twenty calls and text messages between Novelli and Milei's inner circle in the hours before and after the cryptocurrency's launch.

Crypto scandal with few beneficiaries

The $Libra cryptocurrency was launched on February 14, 2025. Milei promoted it via his X account as a private project. “This private project is intended to boost the growth of the Argentine economy and finance small businesses and Argentine operations,” he wrote, sharing a link to a purchase option. An estimated 40,000 people actually acquired $Libra. The memecoin quickly gained value but then collapsed within a few hours. A small group with access to insider information made millions in profits; however, the vast majority of investors suffered losses totaling several hundred million US dollars. Milei then deleted his original post and stated that he had been “unaware” of the project's details. He rejected criticism of his promotional campaign in his usual sharp manner.

Milei also claimed that he had merely copied the code required to purchase $Libra from the internet and published it on his social networks. However, computer forensic experts commissioned by Congress determined that the code – a sequence of 44 digits and uppercase and lowercase letters – was not yet available online at the time of Milei's tweet, as El País reports.

The $Libra case is reminiscent of a so-called “rug pull.” In this scenario, a new cryptocurrency is launched and money is collected from investors. The initiators take the money and disappear with it. Investors are often left with only worthless tokens. Just under two months after the crash, the Argentine Congress, against the will of the government, decided to establish an investigative committee to shed light on the crypto scandal. An investigative unit, the Unidade de Tareas de Investigación (UTI), tasked with investigating the role of Javier and Karina Milei in the matter, among other things, was summarily dissolved by the president just three months after its creation.

(akn)