The LIBRA scandal continues to escalate as leaked messages show Hayden Davis boasting about "bribing" the sister of the President of Argentina to promote the LIBRA memecoin.
Leaked messages show Hayden Davis "bribing" the sister of the President of Argentina to promote LIBRA
According to CoinDesk, the leaked messages from December 2024 are allegedly from Hayden Davis, a representative of Kelsier Ventures – the entity behind the collapse of the LIBRA memecoin, boasting that he could bribe Karina Milei, the sister and close advisor of President Javier Milei, to manipulate the president into promoting this memecoin upon its launch.
SCOOP: Libra co-creator Hayden Davis bragged of sending money to Javier Milei's sister months before the memecoin scandal, saying of the Argentine president: "I control that n****."@realDannyNelson reportshttps://t.co/VFOXltpXWe
— CoinDesk (@CoinDesk) February 18, 2025
The message from Davis was provided by a source close to the current situation, which included the content:
"I control him. I sent money to his sister and he'll sign anything I say and do anything I want."
Karina Milei currently holds the position of Secretary General of the Office of the President of Argentina, a powerful position in the government with significant influence over Milei's policy decisions. If the information Davis revealed is true, this could be one of the biggest political-financial scandals of the Milei administration.
After the article was published, Michael Padovano, a spokesperson for Hayden Davis, told CoinDesk that Davis "does not recall" sending that message and could not find any trace of it on his phone. He claimed that Davis did not pay Javier Milei or Karina Milei, stating that the reports were a politically motivated attack. In an official statement, Davis denied all allegations:
"The claims that I paid President Javier Milei or his sister, Karina Milei, to launch the LIBRA memecoin are completely false. I have never paid them and they have not requested any payments. Their only concern is to ensure that the funds from LIBRA benefit the people and the Argentine economy."
UPDATE: From @realDannyNelson:
— CoinDesk (@CoinDesk) February 19, 2025
In a statement, Hayden Davis denied making payments to Argentina's President Milei. He called media reports "politically motivated." Asked if he refutes making such claims over text message, his PR rep replied that Hayden has no recollection or… https://t.co/T1C7rekXm8 pic.twitter.com/ExALOlEZ95
However, there is still no conclusive evidence that Davis actually transferred money to Milei's inner circle before the launch of LIBRA.
In addition, the Argentine media also revealed that Hayden Davis has maintained contact with President Javier Milei's team to discuss ways to manage the fallout from the LIBRA scandal. In the conversations, the Milei administration is said to have assured that Milei would not accuse Davis of wrongdoing, and planned to send an envoy to meet with Davis this week to find a solution to the issue.
Local media also report that Hayden Davis has kept in contact with Milei's team to manage the scandal
— db (@tier10k) February 18, 2025
The conversations included a promise that Milei wouldn't accuse him of wrongdoing and plans to send an envoy to meet him this week
They also told him to stop doing interviews https://t.co/jzaZkKRO8c pic.twitter.com/3GKEgD90cY
Additionally, Davis has also been asked to stop giving interviews to avoid further escalating the situation. These revelations raise suspicions that the Milei administration is trying to protect Davis and cover up the truth about LIBRA, rather than conducting a transparent investigation.
The LIBRA memecoin scandal has become one of the most shocking rug pulls in the crypto market, with Argentine President Javier Milei himself posting to promote the token on February 15, 2025, causing LIBRA's market capitalization to explode to $4.5 billion.
However, just a few hours later, the LIBRA price plummeted more than 95% when Milei suddenly deleted the promotional post and declared he was not involved in the project. During this time, wallets associated with Hayden Davis' Kelsier Ventures had withdrawn over $100 million from LIBRA's liquidity, causing massive losses for thousands of retail investors.
Milei later stated that he only "shared", not promoted the token. The President of Argentina also claimed that most of the investors who lost money were from China and the US, in an attempt to reduce domestic public pressure.
Immediately after the LIBRA incident was harshly condemned by the community, on-chain detectives quickly got to work to uncover the truth. They quickly discovered that behind LIBRA was Kelsier Ventures, an organization with close ties to Meteora, along with M3M3, a launchpad specialized in memecoins. This group is accused of manipulating the market by exploiting the reputation of KOLs, creating FOMO to drive up token prices before quietly dumping, executing a series of organized pump and dump schemes.
Not only LIBRA, this organization has also interfered with the MELANIA memecoin, a coin associated with the name of the First Lady of the US. According to estimates, they have siphoned over $200 million from similar scams.
Compiled by Coin68
