The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) agents raided the Manhattan apartment of Shayne Coplan, the chief executive officer (CEO) of Polymarket, a prediction market platform that accurately forecasted Donald Trump’s victory in the 2024 presidential election, New York Post reported on Wednesday citing sources.
26-year-old Polymarket CEO Coplan was woken up at 6 am (local time) in his Soho apartment by US law enforcement, who demanded he hand over his phone and other electronic devices, the NY Post reported citing a source close to the matter.
Coplan was not provided with a reason for the raid, but the source suspects it was political retribution since Polymarket accurately predicted an easy Trump triumph over Vice President Kamala Harris – as opposed to traditional polls, as per the New York Post.
Indian-origin Vivek Ramaswamy, who was appointed to head the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) in the Trump administration, responded to a post on X about the development, writing, “Are they mad polymarket predicted the race correctly?”
The source also speculated that the US government could try to accuse Polymarket of market manipulation and rigging its polls in favour of Trump against Vice President Kamala Harris. “This is obvious political retribution by the outgoing administration against Polymarket for providing a market that correctly called the 2024 presidential election,” New York Post reported citing sources.
Coplan was not arrested and has not been charged, a Polymarket spokesperson told the New York Post on Wednesday evening. He said, “Polymarket is a fully transparent prediction market that helps everyday people better understand the events that matter most to them, including elections,” addding, “We charge no fees, take no trading positions, and allow observers from around the world to analyze all market data as a public good.”
The FBI did not immediately respond to a request for comment, as reported by New York Post.
Reacting to the raid, Coplan posted on X, saying, “New phone, who dis?”
The FBI action comes a week after Coplan said that Polymarket plans to return to the US. The platform had predicted a 58.6 per cent chance of a Trump victory on the morning before Election Day, with Vice President Kamala Harris at 41.4 per cent, as reported by New York Post. Polymarket has also been linked to Trump and his allies, with Billionaire Trump supporter Peter Thiel raising about USD 70 million in funding for the platform, according to a Forbes report earlier this year, New York Post reported.
In 2022, Polymarket was forced to pause its trading in the US and pay a USD 1.4 million penalty to settle charges with the Commodity Futures Trading Commission for failing to register with the agency.
A Polymarket “whale” who bet millions on a Trump win had reportedly managed to rake in about USD 85 million in profits. The anonymous bettor, who goes by Theo, was previously believed to operate four separate accounts on Polymarket, the online betting platform that sold Donald Trump and Kamala Harris contracts ahead of the presidential election, as reported by New York Post.
According to the report, around USD 3.7 billion were spent on US presidential election betting, with the majority of bets placed on Trump.
“There was USD 3.7 billion spent on placing bets around the US presidential election, the most of which was spent on Trump, rather than Harris, something that had become an election indicator in the last month before the elections,” as reported by New York Post.
“It’s grand political theatre at its worst. They could have asked his lawyer for any of these things. Instead, they staged a so-called raid so they can leak it to the media and use it for obvious political reasons,” New Post reported citing sources.