“The launch and promotion of LIBRA was not at all improvised or accidental on the part of the president," Maximiliano Ferraro, an opposition lawmaker, told the paper. "It was a planned, coordinated and deliberately executed operation."
The phone logs, obtained from the federal prosecutor's investigation, show the calls took place on the night of February 14, 2025, between Milei and Mauricio Novelli, one of the entrepreneurs behind the token. Novelli also allegedly called two of Milei's top advisers that evening, including the president's sister Karina Milei, per the report.
WhatsApp messages recovered from Novelli's phone point to a financial relationship way before the token's launch.
In one 2023 audio message, Novelli told an assistant to budget "the usual 2,000 for Milei," calling it a monthly salary, while in a separate April 2024 message he referenced "the 4,000 we need to give to Karina," in an apparent reference to Milei's sister, per the Times.
It’s worth noting, however, that no evidence has emerged showing Milei agreed to or received any of the payments. The Argentine president has not publicly commented on the phone logs or payment references, and has not been formally charged in relation to them.
Novelli's lawyer, meanwhile, told the Times his client "is entirely unconnected to any wrongdoing" and is seeking to have the phone evidence excluded, arguing the device may have been tampered with in custody.
If Milei was already cleared, the new evidence could cause them to “go back and re-investigate,” Austin Campbell, founder of crypto risk and compliance advisory firm Zero Knowledge, told Decrypt, while pointing to the difficulties of doing so.
“Crypto has a deep problem with undisclosed payments, promotions, and outright scams,” Campbell said. “What we badly need is a disclosure regime for such arrangements or payments, with significant civil and criminal penalties for failing to disclose.”
Decrypt has reached out to Argentina's presidential press office for comment and will update this piece should they respond.
