The LIBRA scandal against Argentine President Javier Milei has been piling up in recent weeks. Ethereum and Cardano co-founder Charles Hoskinson is the latest player to resurface in a plot involving a myriad of names.
The complainants in the criminal case processed in Buenos Aires, led by lawyer Agustín Rombolá and scam victim Martín Romeo, received an archive last week from the General Directorate of Investigations and Technological Support for Criminal Investigations (DATIP) from the public prosecutor’s office.
The archive contained most of the contents recovered from Mauricio Novelli’s phone. Novelli came under intense scrutiny amid this scandal for being one of the key implicated people in the launch of the LIBRA meme coin in February of last year.
BeInCrypto obtained the forensic evidence archive. In it, it found an unsigned contract agreement between Novelli, Manuel Terrones Godoy, and Sergio Morales, defined as the “Argentina Partners,” and Kelsier Holdings Limited, a company tied to American entrepreneur Hayden Davis.
Recovered Contract Shows Plans to Advance Cardano Locally
The agreement, dated November 27, 2024, involved clauses that would directly support Cardano Initiatives in Argentina.
More specifically, it would “ensure that the Argentine government and relevant figures align their efforts with Cardano’s strategic objectives.” These included to “position Charles Hoskinson as a key contributor to public policies on web3 technology in Argentina,” and to “coordinate private discussions with key leaders to explore the future of Argentina.”
This last clause included assessing potential participation in relevant events, most notably the Cardano Constitutional Convention, which took place in Buenos Aires roughly a month after this contract was drafted.
The agreement alluded to the possibility of a separate contract. It clarified that this support for Cardano initiatives would go into effect “if and when the IOG/Cardano deal is signed.” IOG refers to Input Output Global, the software development company behind Cardano.
The terms of the agreement were significant. They involved a 65/35 revenue split for all partnership deals, with 65% going to Kelsier Holdings Limited and 35% to Argentina Partners.
The deal also required an initial payment of $300,000 for the first month. Half of that amount would have been paid in advance, with the remaining amount due upon the contract’s signature. It’s unclear who would be responsible for these payments.
Another ongoing monthly payment of $250,000 would’ve been required starting on January 1, 2025.
Though the contract had an effective date last November, it clarified that it was executed on October 16, 2024.
When BeInCrypto reached out to Hoskinson, the Cardano founder said the contract was never signed.
“[Hayden] Davis sent us this proposal. It wasn’t something we understood or agreed would be productive, [so] we politely decline[d] his offer and later I publicly mentioned it in the video,” Hoskinson said, referring to a livestream he published on YouTube in February 2024. “We never directly talked to Milei or any of his staff about the offer and could not establish what the relationship actually was nor their level of knowledge.”
BeInCrypto did not see evidence in the reviewed material showing that Hoskinson signed or authorized the draft agreement.
The review of Novelli’s phone also revealed other details.
Novelli’s Phone Reveals Hoskinson Communication
The archive of contents recovered by DATIP also included personal chats Novelli had with different actors. In the “Charles Hoskinson” folder, only one chat appeared. It included an audio file Hoskinson had sent Novelli on November 15, 2024.
“I don’t recall any audio file. Also, I don’t recall talking to Novelli directly. I don’t see his number in my phone,” Hoskinson said.
The archive didn’t include the contents of that file. According to the complainants, this meant that DATIP couldn’t recover those lost files.
The archive also included several group chats among actors who organized the Argentina Tech Forum event in Buenos Aires in October 2024. In that event, Hoskinson was a keynote speaker, whereas Milei delivered the main speech to close out the forum.
The event received significant scrutiny in the aftermath of LIBRA. Novelli and Terrones Godoy were the forum’s main organizers. It was there that Milei allegedly first met Davis, along with other controversial actors such as KIP Protocol’s Julian Peh.
According to one group chat run by the Tech Forum’s marketing team, Hoskinson bought a “black” membership, which represented the event’s highest sponsorship tier. The list of keynote speakers also tentatively included J.J. Siler, IOG’s Chief of Staff.
Speakers who bought the black membership would have paid $50,000 for this package.
Among the benefits it included were “1 keynote and 1 panel slot” at the forum, as well as “1 marketing opportunity.”
“As for the conference, it was not what we were told. We sponsored it right around the time we did the constitutional convention in Argentina at University of Buenos Aires,” Hoskinson told BeInCrypto. “We thought it was going to be a great opportunity to introduce Cardano to the government and business deciders of Argentina. It turned into a multi-chain affair without our knowledge.”
In the aftermath of LIBRA, Hoskinson publicly shared his experience at the Argentina Tech Forum.
Hoskinson’s Address Following Libra Fallout
A day after Libra’s launch, Hoskinson dedicated a video to discuss what had happened. During the livestream, he placed heavy emphasis on the event that had occurred five months earlier.
The Cardano founder, interested in expanding operations in the country beyond private sector opportunities, wanted to explore potential public-private partnerships.
He explained that the event organizers, likely referring to Novelli and Terrones Godoy, told him that the Tech Forum would be a good chance to have a sit-down with the President. That never happened. Instead, Hoskinson got a handshake and a group photograph.
According to him, such promises soon turned into a request for bribes.
“We had all these people that we’d encounter along the way and say, ‘Hey, you give us a little something-something, and we can get you a meeting and magical things can happen,’” Hoskinson recalled in the livestream.
As soon as Hoskinson responded that that would be against the United States Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA), these actors stopped all dialogue with him and his team.
Hoskinson also shared his personal interpretation of the Libra scandal. He clarified that he thought Milei was a good person who had surrounded himself with the wrong people.
However, the most recent evidence mounting against Milei suggests the opposite.
Call Logs Reveal Novelli-Milei Contact Around Launch
The DATIP archive revealed that, on the day of the LIBRA launch, Milei, his sister and Secretary General Karina Milei, and Novelli exchanged several calls with each other.
Minutes before the LIBRA launch, Novelli attempted to call Karina Milei, who rejected his call. Then he called Javier Milei, but Milei did not answer. Minutes later, Novelli called him again, and they spoke for less than two minutes. They had two more phone calls within the next five minutes.
Then, Milei published the LIBRA tweet that would later cause 86% of traders who invested in it to lose money, according to research firm Nansen.
Following the aftermath, Novelli and Milei have three more phone conversations.
The latest evidence also revealed that Novelli and Milei had a tight-knit relationship as early as 2021.
BeInCrypto also reported last October that, two months before the LIBRA scandal, Milei had already participated in a nearly identical scheme by helping launch the KIP token.
Novelli and Terrones Godoy also participated in this launch.
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