Why Javier Milei can’t escape the $Libra case

Like a thorn in his side, President Javier Milei can’t seem to shake off the $Libra case. Opposition figures from various political circles are preventing him from doing so, and it doesn’t help that the scandal has led to complaints or lawsuits in three countries. But what’s complicating matters the most is his own actions, those of his sister Karina, and those of his collaborators, which have left a string of unanswered questions and disturbing clues, to say the least.

The scandal began more than 150 days ago. On the night of February 14, an unknown 28-year-old American, Hayden Davis, who presented himself as a “crypto expert,” launched $Libra. That is, a “memecoin” that drew in hundreds of millions of dollars thanks to a tweet from President Milei who spread — or promoted — its supposed benefits, but which imploded after just five hours.

From there, the storm intensified. Complaints were filed in Argentina, the United States, and Spain, and investors from several countries have since demanded their money back, while opponents smell blood in the water as investigators detected one inconsistency after another, with neither Milei nor his administration able to overcome the storm. Quite the opposite.

First, because the president lied. In one of the few interviews he granted to sympathetic journalists, he claimed he was merely “disseminating” — not “promoting” — a project that would raise funds for Argentine entrepreneurs and small businesses. And that he merely copied the “contract” for that project, which he said was available “on the internet.” But that is false, according to experts testifying before the Argentine Congress. That “contract” — a 44-digit code consisting of upper and lowercase letters — was not available online. And Milei is silent on who provided it to him and how prior to his social media post.

Second, because the president isn’t the only one keeping quiet. Davis should explain to whom he transferred $507,500 on January 30, just 42 minutes after Milei posted a selfie of the two of them in the presidential office on his official account on the social network X. He should also reveal to whom he sent $1,275,000 a day before the launch of $Libra and the president’s post with the “contract” for that memecoin, a post that he pinned to the top of his official account on X, something he had never done before.

Third, because the president also didn’t explain why he opened the doors of the Casa Rosada, the seat of government, to Davis when the latter was a relative unknown in the sector. “Does anyone know him?” inquired Santiago Siri, a renowned blockchain developer in Argentina. “There’s not even any information about him on Google, which is already a bit of a weird thing in this century,” Siri added at the time, while the president of the NGO Bitcoin Argentina, Ricardo Mihura, even alerted Milei via X: “I can’t find him on Google or LinkedIn. Who is this Davis guy? A businessman from which company? Watch out, President: there are a lot of con artists and scammers out there.” And other experts, like Maximiliano Firtman, chose to convey to government officials their misgivings about Davis and his company, Kelsier Ventures.

Fourth, because the records of access to the Casa Rosada — which Milei’s acolytes only released in full in response to formal requests for public information — show that Davis entered the government palace with the authorization of the president’s sister, Karina Milei, who serves as secretary general of the Presidency. Yet she has not agreed to answer questions about the $Libra case before the media, nor before the investigative commission of the Argentine Congress.

Fifth, because those same admissions records show that Davis entered the Casa Rosada through the help of two other protagonists of the scandal, Mauricio Novelli and Manuel Terrones Godoy, who were already facing multiple scandals and complaints, both in Argentina and abroad, for other missteps involving crypto assets. Why did Milei welcome Davis, but not industry giants like Ethereum owner Vitalik Buterin? Was it because Buterin didn’t go through Novelli and Terrones Godoy?

Sixth, because Milei never explained why he maintained his trust in Novelli despite the fact that in February 2022 the latter had gotten him into trouble that could have cost Milei his then-nascent political career. Milei had been a national deputy for two months when he praised the digital asset Vulcano, another Novelli venture, on social media. He claimed it was “sustainable over time,” but it collapsed just weeks later. Why did Milei, now president, decide to trust Novelli again? He has never offered any explanation.

Seventh, because neither Milei, his sister Karina, nor their top aides have ever explained why their government backed “Tech Forum,” another Novelli and Terrones Godoy venture that did not have any sponsors or important speakers until this official government support arrived. Nor did they respond to questions about whether they had received alerts about the five-figure sums, in dollars, that Novelli and Terrones Godoy were demanding from entrepreneurs to secure them meetings with Milei, as revealed by Cardano CEO Charles Hoskinson. Nor did they clarify why Milei did meet and take photos with the CEOs of Cube Exchange, Bartosz Lipinsk, and Kip Protocol, Julian Peh, two businesspeople who did sponsor Tech Forum.

Eighth, because Milei never explained why emissaries of his government continued to communicate with Hayden Davis after the collapse of $Libra, to the point of telling him ahead of time that the president would grant a television interview — a fact that had not yet been made public in Argentina — in which he would avoid criticizing him, as was indeed the case. Davis himself revealed as much in one of the two interviews he gave after the storm broke.

Ninth, because the same president who has called his vice president, Victoria Villarruel, a “traitor” and described economists he has distanced himself from — Domingo Cavallo, Ricardo López Murphy, Carlos Rodríguez, and Fausto Spotorno, among many others — as “econochantas” (economic know-nothings); the same man who has insulted journalists, politicians, and even a 12-year-old boy with autism, has never once criticized, disparaged, or insulted Davis, Novelli, or Terrones Godoy since the scandal broke.

Tenth, because the same ruling party that claims everything is fine and there’s nothing to hide sought to prevent the creation of an investigative commission in the Argentine Congress.Even when the commission was approved on April 8 with opposition votes, the government then worked to obstruct its formation and operation. And it succeeded. But this same official boycott only served to prolong the scandal…and leave these and many other questions unanswered.

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