What a shock:
President Javier Milei of Argentina promoted a cryptocurrency last year that quickly skyrocketed in value then cratered just as fast, costing investors millions of dollars and setting off a scandal and an investigation.
Mr. Milei said he was simply highlighting a private venture and had no connection to the digital coin called $Libra. New evidence is now raising questions about his assertion. Phone logs from a federal investigation by Argentine prosecutors into the coin’s collapse show seven phone calls between Mr. Milei and one of the entrepreneurs behind the cryptocurrency on the night in 2025 when Mr. Milei posted about $Libra on X.
The contents of the calls, which took place before and after Mr. Milei’s post, are not known.But the phone logs — which were obtained by The New York Times and first reported by a local cable news channel, C5N — suggest a greater degree of communication between Mr. Milei and the entrepreneurs who launched the token than what the president has publicly acknowledged. Newly uncovered messages also suggest Mr. Milei received regular payments from one of the entrepreneurs while he was a congressman.
Of course he’s corrupt. Why would anyone think otherwise? He’s a member of the global right wing and affiliated with Donald Trump.
The crypto scams are going to be one of the biggest stories of this period. I don’t know how long it’s going to take to completely unravel it but in the end we will find that these criminals stole billions from people who were clueless about what they were getting into. It’s a sad comment on our modern culture that people can’t see through these scams but far too many are dazzled by hucksters who promise wealth and vengeance and they’re going to end up with neither.