Press reports in Colombia claim that President Gustavo Petro took over half a million dollars in digital tokens from a fraudulent cryptocurrency project to fund his bid for reelection in 2022.
Omar Hernández, a former contractor for the token project, told Caracol Radio on Wednesday that in 2022, the cryptocurrency project Daily COP, which is based in Colombia, illegally donated 2 billion Colombian pesos, or about $514,036, in cryptocurrency to Petro’s campaign. During a meeting in February 2022 at a bakery in Bogota, the donation was discussed with Petro’s then-campaign manager Ricardo Roa and Daily COP co-founder Sebastián Betancourt. The parties also spoke about “the advantages of cryptocurrencies as an alternative to the traditional banking system,” according to Hernández, who asserts that he was present at the meeting.
Hernandez told Caracol Radio that the meeting’s goal was to establish a “joint venture [or] alliance with the government,” and that during the meeting, “the issue of regulation and the adoption of [blockchain] technology…was discussed.”The latest in a string of accusations against President Petro’s campaign has focused on cryptocurrency and is the subject of the most recent illicit donation claim. Reuters stated that last year, the Colombian attorney general’s office began looking into allegations of illegal funding for Petro’s 2022 campaign.