2 weeks Ago By Zachary Stieber
Federal law enforcement agents raided the downtown New York home of Polymarket CEO Shayne Coplan on Nov. 13, seizing his phone and electronics, the company said. The early-morning raid followed last week’s presidential election, in which bettors on Polymarket, an offshore, crypto-fueled election gambling website, had for weeks put President-elect Donald Trump’s odds higher than those of Vice President Kamala Harris, in a divergence from some opinion polls.
Coplan, Polymarket’s 26-year-old founder, was roused from his bed in New York City’s SoHo neighborhood at 6 a.m. by FBI agents demanding he give them his electronic devices, according to the company.
Polymarket declined to comment on reports that federal prosecutors are investigating it for allegedly allowing U.S.-based users to bet on the site.
A spokesperson said the FBI raid was “obvious political retribution by the outgoing administration against Polymarket for providing a market that correctly called the 2024 presidential election.” The company said that Coplan had not been arrested or taken into custody. The FBI declined to comment.
The Department of Justice and the White House did not respond to requests for comment on the raid. Coplan wrote on the social media platform X that he was using a new phone. “Polymarket has provided value to 10’s of millions of people this election cycle, while causing harm to nobody.
We’re deeply proud of that. I’m also proud to say that the future of America, and in particular American entrepreneurship, has never been brighter. In the face of adversity, we build.
” In the run-up to the presidential election, Polymarket placed Trump’s odds of winning high above those of Harris, when some opinion polls had shown the race in a dead heat. Trump ended up winning the election with 312 electoral votes to Harris’s 226, as he took all six battleground states—Arizona, Georgia, Michigan, Nevada, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin—that President Joe Biden had won in 2020. The current popular vote total also has Trump with 50.
2 percent of the vote, compared to 48.2 percent for Harris. Some states are still counting ballots more than one week after the election.
Polymarket also gained scrutiny after a mystery French trader, known as the Polymarket whale, made large bets on Trump winning the election. The trader’s huge wagers came in tandem with a dramatic rise in Trump’s chances on the exchanges. The trader walked away with more than $46 million in profit.
France’s gambling regulator, Autorite Nationale des Jeux, said earlier in November it was investigating Polymarket. “We are aware of this site and are currently examining its operation and compliance with French gambling legislation,” a spokesperson told news outlets at the time..
