MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Francos defends Milei's involvement in $LIBRA cryptofiasco

Francos also accused Congress of wanting to “set up a media court”

Argentine Cabinet Chief Guillermo Francos denied before Congress Tuesday any involvement on the part of President Javier Milei in the $Libra cryptofiasco, saying the head of State had no link to the project and there was no state coordination or economic benefit.

He did admit, however, that Milei and his sister Karina met $Libra creators Hayden Mark Davis and Julian Peh, but only to promote small projects and local companies. Francos also dismissed claims of payments to Karina Milei, accused Congress of overreach, and underlined past corruption cases that never resulted in any conviction.

Opposition lawmakers criticized the absence of Ministers Mariano Cúneo Libarona (Justice) and Luis Toto Caputo (Economy), who were summoned again for May 14.

Milei “did not maintain and does not maintain any link with the cryptocurrency,” Francos stressed. He added that there was no “coordination or participation of the State” in the project. Milei only disseminated the project in the social network X to “boost the Argentine economy by financing small projects and local companies”, under the consideration that it was “a legitimate undertaking aimed at promoting a sector that has great difficulties in accessing financing,” Francos insisted.

The session began with a tense regulatory debate, since the ruling party and the opposition could not agree on the format of the questioning.

During his speech, Francos also rejected The New York Times' mentioning an alleged payment to Karina Milei for the promotion of $Libra, stating: “You cannot base yourselves on journalistic notes, if you have evidence, take it to Justice.”

Faced with questions about the origin of the link to the cryptocurrency contract that Milei published in X, Francos referred to the President's statement that it was “public information”, although the opposition insisted that the traceability of crypto operations proved otherwise.

Francos also accused Congress of wanting to “set up a media court” and warned about the “overreach of Congress” because “the division of powers must be respected.” He highlighted the importance of not creating “parallel organs of Justice.”

He also underlined that Peronism never investigated corruption cases such as Skanska, Antonini Wilson, Daniel Muñoz, the Cuadernos de la Coimas case, Vialidad, Hotesur-Los Sauces, Cristina Kirchner's VIP retirement, INDEC's manipulation, the Memorandum with Iran, and the death of prosecutor Alberto Nisman, among others. “Did they ever question a minister about José López's bags? Did they create any investigative commission?” he wondered.