FBI Seizes Polymarket CEO’s Devices to Allegedly Probe Potential Market Manipulation in Elections Bets

Federal law enforcement agents raided the downtown New York home of Polymarket CEO Shayne Coplan on Wednesday, seizing his phone and electronics, the company confirmed.The early-morning raid of Coplan’s SoHo apartment followed last week’s presidential election, in which bettors on Polymarket, an offshore, crypto-fueled election gambling website, had for weeks put Donald Trump’s odds drastically higher than those of Vice President Kamala Harris, in sharp divergence from opinion polls. Coplan, Polymarket’s 26-year-old founder, was roused from his bed at 6 a.m. by FBI agents demanding he give them his electronic devices.

The DOJ is investigating Polymarket for allegedly allowing U.S.-based users to bet on the site, Bloomberg News reported Wednesday evening. Polymarket declined to comment on those allegations but 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.”