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A plaintiff in the Argentine criminal case investigating the LIBRA scandal has requested the immediate arrest of two figures close to President Javier Milei, who were associated with the February token launch.
Recent developments in the investigation also revealed that Milei significantly underestimated the number of Argentine retailers impacted by LIBRA’s price drop.
Judge Weighs Arrest Request
The ongoing LIBRA scandal investigation in Argentina continues to complicate the position of figures closely associated with the token launch.
This week, both the congressional commission and the parallel criminal investigation into the LIBRA scandal saw new developments.
Martín Romeo, a crypto expert and acting plaintiff in the criminal investigation, requested on Tuesday that federal judge Marcelo Martínez de Giorgi order the detainment of Mauricio Novelli and Manuel Terrones Godoy, two advisors to the President who were quickly linked to the token launch.
The request follows a series of disclosures made by the congressional committee. In analyzing this information for the criminal investigation, Romeo concluded that Novelli, Terrones Godoy, and American investor Hayden Mark Davis—who was also linked to the LIBRA launch—made a number of irregular transactions leading up to the scandal.
Based on this information, Romeo requested that the court order the detention of Novelli and Terrones Godoy, who reside in Argentina. He argued they posed a flight risk because Novelli holds Italian citizenship and Terrones Godoy has permanent residency in Mexico.
The judge has not yet ruled on the request. Nevertheless, the latest findings present significant evidence against the individuals closely linked to the LIBRA scandal.
Committee Gathers Wallet Transaction Data
The congressional committee, led by Representative Maximiliano Ferraro, recently received new information concerning individuals associated with the LIBRA launch.
“Based on the information requests we made to several crypto exchange platforms, 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 enabled 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 gained access to the information acquired by the congressional committee, started tracking down the movements of Novelli’s and Terrones Godoy’s wallet addresses around the time of the LIBRA launch.
He was also able to trace down Davis’s wallet address from when Davis reimbursed Barstool Sports founder Dave Portnoy the $5 million he lost following the LIBRA launch.
On January 30, Milei received Davis at the Casa Rosada, the headquarters of the executive branch in Buenos Aires.
Romeo found that Davis carried out two transfers totaling $1,015,000 USDT to a Bitget account that same day. A few days later, $695,000 worth of those funds was transferred to Novelli’s Binance wallet, while the remaining $320,000 was sent to the Argentine equivalent of a small private bank linked to Novelli and Terrones Godoy.
“What I don’t know, because I haven’t received that information yet, is who the owner of the BitGet account is,” Romeo clarified to BeInCrypto.
On February 3, just eleven days before the LIBRA launch, Davis carried out another transaction. He sent $1,991,000 USDT to an unknown BitGet account.
“$800,000 goes to a hot wallet that I don’t know who it belongs to, and I don’t know if I’ll be able to track that down, and another $1,191,000 goes to the bank [associated with Novelli and Terrones Godoy],” Romeo explained.
A day later, security cameras recorded Novelli, his mother, and his sister manipulating several safety deposit boxes at a Galicia bank branch in the Buenos Aires neighborhood of Martínez. The footage showed Novelli’s mother and sister carrying a backpack and a handbag whose contents were indiscernible.
According to Ferraro, the congressional committee is currently analyzing a hypothesis about whether the money Novelli and Terrones Godoy received through the private bank was the same money that Novelli presumably stored in the Galicia branch.
It’s also examining whether Novelli withdrew that money from the safety deposit boxes following the LIBRA launch.
Beyond the transactions the congressional committee and Romeo were able to track down, the information received from centralized exchanges further complicates Milei’s supposed participation in the LIBRA launch.
Official Data Contradicts The President’s Claims
During an interview on national television days after LIBRA’s price plummeted, Milei said that 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 residents in the country purchased the $LIBRA token, when Milei himself had said that “no more than five Argentinians” had been affected. He lied on national television to downplay a massive scam,” Ferraro told BeInCrypto.
This number doesn’t account for the number of Argentines who used decentralized platforms to purchase the token, nor those who purchased LIBRA overseas.
He added that Milei has still failed to explain how he obtained the 43-character contract number he posted on his X account to promote LIBRA. Ferraro pointed out that the information was not public before that message.
Last month, the congressional committee also cited Milei and his sister Karina, who currently acts as the president’s Secretary General, to provide testimony 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 give testimony on the two occasions she was summoned, nor did she offer any cooperation by proposing an alternative date,” Ferraro added.
Novelli and Terrones Godoy, whom the commission also cited, also failed to appear.
On Tuesday, the commission approved a formal summons for Milei to testify. It also authorized Ferraro to seek law enforcement assistance to ensure the appearance of his sister, Karina, along with Novelli and Terrones Godoy.
“If they do not come to testify, we will exercise this authority as soon as the Federal Court rules on our appeal,” Ferraro said.
Read original story Argentine Court Asked To Arrest The President’s Allies In the LIBRA Scandal by Camila Grigera Naón at beincrypto.com
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