The FBI has raided the home of the founder of Polymarket, the crypto-based betting site which attracted scrutiny in the run up to the US election when a foreign user – the French Whale – made a massive bet on Trump.
Turns out the whale was right, but the DoJ is now investigating the platform and its founder, Shayne Coplan, for allegedly accepting prohibited trades.
Coplan, whose phone was seized, claimed the raid was a “last-ditch effort to go after companies [the Biden administration] deem to be associated with political opponents”.
The 26-year old CEO has previously been photographed with Donald Trump Jr, while Polymarket has received $70 million in funding from the billionaire Trump supporter Peter Thiel.
In 2022 the platform was forced to pay a $1.4 million penalty to settle charges with the Commodity Futures Trading Commission.
