By Michelle Conlin
NEW YORK (Reuters) -Federal legislation enforcement brokers raided the downtown New York residence of Polymarket CEO Shayne Coplan on Wednesday, seizing his cellphone and electronics, the corporate confirmed.
The early-morning raid of Coplan’s SoHo residence adopted final week’s presidential election, by which bettors on Polymarket, an offshore, crypto-fueled election playing web site, had for weeks put Donald Trump’s odds drastically greater than these of Vice President Kamala Harris, in sharp divergence from opinion polls.
Coplan, Polymarket’s 26-year-old founder, was roused from his mattress at 6 a.m. by FBI brokers demanding he give them his digital units, the New York Put up first reported.
The FBI and Division of Justice didn’t reply to requests for touch upon the raid.
“Polymarket is a fully transparent prediction market that helps everyday people better understand the events that matter most to them, including elections,” mentioned a Polymarket spokesperson.
The corporate informed Reuters Coplan had not been arrested or taken into custody.
Within the run-up to the presidential election, the location gained widespread consideration for the way in which it positioned Trump’s odds excessive above these of Harris, when opinion polls had for months proven the race in a lifeless warmth.
Polymarket, which doesn’t permit buying and selling within the U.S., additionally gained scrutiny after a thriller French dealer made massive bets on Trump successful the election.
The dealer’s big Polymarket bets got here in tandem with a dramatic rise in Trump’s probabilities on the exchanges.
He walked away with greater than $46 million in revenue.
Final week, France’s playing regulator mentioned it was inspecting whether or not Polymarket complies with French legal guidelines.
