Argentine Court Asked To Arrest The President’s Allies In the LIBRA Scandal

A plaintiff in the Argentine criminal case investigating the LIBRA scandal has called for the immediate arrest of two figures close to President Javier Milei, associated with the token’s launch in February.

Recent developments in the investigation also revealed that Milei significantly underestimated the number of Argentine retailers affected by LIBRA’s price cut.

Judge assesses arrest request

The ongoing investigation into the LIBRA scandal in Argentina continues to complicate the situation for figures closely associated with the token’s launch.

This week, both the congressional committee and the parallel criminal investigation into the LIBRA scandal saw new developments.

Martín Romeo, a cryptography expert and acting plaintiff in the criminal investigation, asked federal judge Marcelo Martínez de Giorgi on Tuesday to order the detention of Mauricio Novelli and Manuel Terrones Godoy, two advisers to the president who were quickly linked to the token’s launch.

The request follows a series of disclosures made by the congressional committee. Analyzing this information for the criminal investigation, Romeo concluded that Novelli, Terrones Godoy and American investor Hayden Mark Davis, also linked to the launch of LIBRA, had made a number of irregular transactions leading to the scandal.

Based on this information, Romeo asked the court to order the detention of Novelli and Terrones Godoy, who reside in Argentina. He argued that they posed a flight risk because Novelli has Italian citizenship and Terrones Godoy has permanent residency in Mexico.

The judge has not yet ruled on the request. Nonetheless, the latest findings present significant evidence against individuals closely linked to the LIBRA scandal.

The committee collects data on portfolio transactions

The Congressional Committee, led by Representative Maximiliano Ferraro, recently received new information regarding individuals associated with the launch of LIBRA.

“Based on the requests for information we made to several cryptocurrency exchanges, we obtained data that not only directly refutes President Milei’s statements, but also begins to demonstrate the connection between the main players, both inside and outside the country,” Ferraro told BeInCrypto in an interview in Spanish.

Among the platforms that responded were Binance and Gate.io, which confirmed that Novelli had a virtual wallet with the former, while Terrones Godoy had one with the latter.

This information allowed the congressional committee and the plaintiffs involved in the criminal investigation to reconstruct the financial circuit before and after the launch.

Davis transfers funds after Milei meeting

Romeo, who had access to information acquired by the congressional committee, began tracking the movements of Novelli and Terrones Godoy’s wallet addresses at the time of LIBRA’s launch.

He was also able to trace Davis’ wallet address from when Davis repaid Barstool Sports founder Dave Portnoy the $5 million he lost after launching LIBRA.

On January 30, Milei received Davis at the Casa Rosada, the seat of executive power in Buenos Aires.

Romeo discovered that Davis made two transfers totaling 1,015,000 USDT to a Bitget account on the same day. A few days later, $695,000 of those funds were transferred to Novelli’s Binance wallet, while the remaining $320,000 was sent to the Argentinian equivalent of a small private bank linked to Novelli and Terrones Godoy.

“What I don’t know, because I haven’t received this information yet, is who the owner of the BitGet account is,” Roméo told BeInCrypto.

On February 3, just eleven days before LIBRA launched, Davis made another trade. He sent 1,991,000 USDT to an unknown BitGet account.

“$800,000 goes into a hot wallet that I don’t know who it belongs to, and I don’t know if I’ll be able to find it, and another $1,191,000 goes to the bank. [associated with Novelli and Terrones Godoy]”, explained Romeo.

A day later, security cameras recorded Novelli, his mother and sister tampering with several safes at a Galicia bank branch in the Martínez neighborhood of Buenos Aires. The images showed Novelli’s mother and sister carrying a backpack and a purse whose contents were indistinguishable.

According to Ferraro, the congressional commission is currently analyzing a hypothesis according to which the money that Novelli and Terrones Godoy received through the private bank was the same that Novelli allegedly stored in the Galicia branch.

It also examines whether Novelli withdrew this money from the vaults after the launch of LIBRA.

Beyond the transactions that the Congressional Committee and Romeo were able to trace, information received from centralized exchanges further complicates Milei’s alleged participation in the launch of LIBRA.

Official data contradicts the president’s claims

During a national television interview days after the LIBRA price crash, Milei said the number of Argentine investors affected by the token launch was in the single digits.

According to information the congressional committee received from Ripio, a leading centralized exchange in Argentina, the data paints a different picture.

“Ripio informed us that 1,358 locals in the country had purchased the $LIBRA token, while Milei himself said that ‘no more than five Argentines’ had been affected. He lied on national television to downplay a massive scam,” Ferraro told BeInCrypto.

This number does not take into account the number of Argentines who used decentralized platforms to purchase the token, nor those who purchased LIBRA abroad.

He added that Milei has still not explained how he obtained the 43-character contract number he posted on his X account to promote LIBRA. Ferraro stressed that the information was not public prior to this post.

Last month, the congressional committee also subpoenaed Milei and her sister Karina, who currently serves as the president’s general secretary, to testify about their alleged participation in the event.

“President Javier Milei did not respond to the request we sent him twice, which included a fairly simple and concise questionnaire. His sister, Karina Milei, also did not appear to testify on the two occasions she was summoned, nor did she offer cooperation by proposing an alternative date,” Ferraro added.

Novelli and Terrones Godoy, also cited by the commission, also did not appear.

On Tuesday, the commission approved a formal summons for Milei to testify. He also authorized Ferraro to request help from law enforcement to secure the appearance of his sister Karina, as well as Novelli and Terrones Godoy.

“If they do not come and testify, we will exercise that power as soon as the Federal Court rules on our appeal,” Ferraro said.

Read original story Argentine court urged to arrest president’s allies in LIBRA scandal by Camila Grigera Naón on beincrypto.com