Phone records show seven calls between Miley and Libra backer on launch night: report

Relations with Argentine President Javier Miley collapsed Libra The meme coin may be deeper than he admitted, as newly surfaced phone records show seven calls between Miley and a key figure behind the token on the night of its launch.

mercy Promoted the SolanaX-based token in February 2025, taking its market cap to over $4 billion before then crashed more than 90% Within hours the insiders had drained nearly $87 million of liquidity.

The collapse cost investors an estimated $250 million and sparked accusations of fraud Congressional investigationand A Federal criminal investigation Which remains open.

By June 2025, Argentina’s Anti-Corruption Office to survey Miley, it was ruled that he acted in his personal capacity when he posted about the token.

According to A New York Times a report Based on initial coverage from a local news channel C5NThe calls in question took place before and after Milei’s now-deleted post endorsing the Solana-based token at the time.

“The launch and promotion of Libra was not at all impromptu or accidental on the part of the president,” Maximiliano Ferraro, an opposition lawmaker, told the newspaper. “It was a planned, coordinated and deliberately executed operation.”

backstage

Phone records, obtained from a federal prosecutor’s investigation, show that the calls took place on the night of February 14, 2025, between Miley and Mauricio Novelli, one of the entrepreneurs behind the token. Novelli also allegedly called two of Miley’s senior advisers that evening, including the president’s sister Karina Miley, according to the report.

WhatsApp messages recovered from Novelli’s phone suggest a financial relationship prior to the token launch.

In one 2023 voice message, Novelli told a budget aide “the usual 2,000 for Miley,” calling it a monthly salary, while in a separate April 2024 message he referred to “4,000 we need to give to Karina,” in an apparent reference to Miley’s sister, according to times.

Draft documents found on Novelli’s phone outline a $1.5 million payment scheme linked to Milei’s public naming Hayden Davis The report indicates that he is a presidential advisor.

However, it should be noted that no evidence has emerged showing that Miley approved or received any of the payments. The Argentine president has not commented publicly on the phone records or payment references, and has not been formally charged in connection with them.

Meanwhile, Novelli’s lawyer told… times His client has “absolutely no connection to any wrongdoing” and is seeking to exclude the phone evidence, arguing that the device may have been tampered with while in custody.

Austin Campbell, founder of cryptocurrency risk and compliance consultancy Zero Knowledge, said that if Miley is indeed exonerated, the new evidence could prompt them to “go back and reinvestigate.” DecryptionNoting the difficulties of doing so.

“Cryptocurrencies have a deep problem with unannounced payments, promotions, and outright fraud,” Campbell said. “What we desperately need is a system for disclosing such arrangements or payments, with significant civil and criminal penalties for failure to disclose them.”

mercy solution A government task force investigating the scandal in May last year. The federal criminal investigation under Attorney General Eduardo Taiano remains open.

Decryption I have reached out to the Argentine presidential press office for comment and will update this article if they respond.