New documents disclosed by the Argentine newspaper Clarín suggest the existence of an alleged financial agreement of US$5 million related to the launch of the cryptocurrency $LIBRA and to the public support of Argentina’s president, Javier Milei.
According to the report, the material was found during the forensic examination of lobbyist Mauricio Novelli’s phone, described as the intermediary between the Argentine government and the cryptocurrency entrepreneur Hayden Davis.
According to the newspaper, the document is said to have been recorded in a notes block on Novelli’s iPhone on February 11, 2025, three days before Milei posted on his social networks a message about the project.
The text, written in English, would describe an alleged financial agreement divided into three payments, totaling US$5 million. The first installment would be US$1.5 million in tokens or cash. A second payment of the same amount would be tied to Hayden Davis’s public announcement as an advisor on blockchain-related matters.
The third point mentions an additional payment of US$2 million related to a possible consulting contract in blockchain and artificial intelligence for the Argentine government or directly for Javier Milei.
According to Clarín, the recovered excerpt does not specify who would be the ultimate recipient of these funds.
Read also:
Draft of a Message to Contain the Crisis
In addition to the document about the alleged agreement, the forensic analysis would also have found a draft message that could have been used to respond to the crisis generated by the launch of the cryptocurrency.
The text, dated February 16, 2025, suggested a public statement affirming support for the “Libra coin vision,” while denying direct financial interest in the project.
According to the report, the content would indicate a narrative prepared to be disseminated on social networks or in interviews with the aim of containing the negative fallout of the case.
Context of the Scandal
The $LIBRA case drew wide attention in Argentina after Milei promoted the token in a post on the X social network. The post was deleted shortly after going live.
As InfoMoney has already shown, public blockchain records indicate that the cryptocurrency was created a few minutes before the president’s post.
After the message generated strong demand for the asset and drove up its price, the token suffered a sharp devaluation hours later, raising suspicions of a possible “rug pull,” a type of fraud common in the crypto market where the creators artificially inflate the value of an asset before abandoning it.
Data analyzed by blockchain intelligence firms also indicated that a single wallet held around 80% of the created tokens. According to the Lookonchain platform, wallets linked to the project would have moved about US$107.3 million.
The Argentine judiciary is examining whether Milei’s post had a direct impact on the asset’s valuation and whether the president or members of his team obtained any kind of financial benefit.
The Argentine government denies involvement in the project but confirmed that Milei and members of his team met with the developers of the cryptocurrency before the episode.
