Newly surfaced phone records suggest Argentine President Javier Milei may have had closer ties to the collapsed LIBRA meme token than he’s publicly acknowledged. According to a New York Times piece that cites reporting from local cable channel C5N, federal prosecutor files show seven calls between Milei and Mauricio Novelli — a key entrepreneur behind the Solana-based token — on the night LIBRA launched.
What happened
- In February 2025 Milei posted about LIBRA on X, briefly sending the token’s market cap above $4 billion. Within hours the price plunged more than 90% after insiders drained roughly $87 million in liquidity. The crash wiped out an estimated $250 million in investor value and sparked fraud charges, a congressional probe and an ongoing federal criminal investigation.
- The newly reported phone logs put calls between Milei and Novelli on the night of February 14, 2025, both before and after Milei’s now-deleted endorsement. Novelli also allegedly phoned two of Milei’s top advisers that night, including Milei’s sister Karina, the Times says.
Messaging and documents
- Investigators reportedly recovered WhatsApp audio and messages from Novelli’s phone that point to financial ties predating the token launch. In a 2023 audio clip, Novelli allegedly tells an assistant to budget “the usual 2,000 for Milei,” calling it a monthly salary. In an April 2024 message he references “the 4,000 we need to give to Karina,” apparently referring to Milei’s sister.
- Draft documents found on Novelli’s device also allegedly outline a $1.5 million payment plan tied to Milei publicly naming crypto executive Hayden Davis as a presidential adviser. Importantly, no evidence has been made public showing Milei agreed to or received any of those payments.
Responses and legal status
- Argentina’s anti-corruption office had cleared Milei in June 2025, concluding he acted in a personal capacity when he posted about LIBRA. Milei has not publicly commented on the newly reported phone logs or the payment references and has not been formally charged in connection with them.
- Novelli’s lawyer told the Times his client “is entirely unconnected to any wrongdoing” and is seeking to exclude the phone evidence, arguing the device may have been tampered with while in custody.
- The federal criminal probe led by prosecutor Eduardo Taiano remains open. Milei dissolved a government task force investigating the scandal in May last year.
Political reaction and industry concern
- Opposition lawmaker Maximiliano Ferraro told the Times the LIBRA launch “was not at all improvised or accidental on the part of the president. It was a planned, coordinated and deliberately executed operation,” framing the phone activity as evidence of coordination.
- Crypto risk adviser Austin Campbell, founder of Zero Knowledge, told Decrypt the new material could prompt re-opening parts of the inquiry but flagged practical hurdles: “Crypto has a deep problem with undisclosed payments, promotions, and outright scams. What we badly need is a disclosure regime for such arrangements or payments, with significant civil and criminal penalties for failing to disclose.”
What’s next
The phone logs and recovered messages add fresh texture to an already high-profile collapse that has drawn domestic and international scrutiny. If the records are admitted and verified, they could change how investigators and prosecutors view Milei’s role in LIBRA’s rise and collapse. For now, the federal probe remains active and key questions — who coordinated the launch, whether payments were exchanged, and what role, if any, top officials played — remain unresolved.
Decrypt has reached out to Argentina’s presidential press office for comment and will update this story if and when they respond.
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