By Michelle Conlin
NEW YORK (Reuters) – Federal law enforcement officers raided Polymarket CEO Shayne Coplan’s home in central New York on Wednesday, seizing his phone and electronics, according to a story in the New York Post.
The early morning raid on Coplan’s SoHo apartment followed last week’s presidential election, in which bettors on Polymarket, an offshore, crypto-based election gambling website, had dramatically boosted Donald Trump’s odds over those of Vice President Kamala Harris for weeks. deviate from opinion polls.
Coplan, the 26-year-old founder of Polymarket, was woken from his bed at 6 a.m. by FBI agents who demanded he give them his electronic devices, the New York Post reported.
The FBI and Justice Department did not respond to requests for comment on the raid.
“Polymarket is a fully transparent prediction market that helps everyday people better understand the events that matter most to them, including elections,” a Polymarket spokesperson said, without confirming details of the raid.
The company told Reuters that Coplan had not been arrested or taken into custody.
In the run-up to the presidential election, the site received widespread attention for the way it placed Trump’s chances high above Harris’, even as polls had shown for months that the race was at a dead end.
Polymarket, which does not allow trading in the US, also faced criticism after a mysterious French trader made big bets on Trump winning the election.
The trader’s huge Polymarket bets were accompanied by a dramatic rise in Trump’s odds on the stock markets.
He walked away with more than $46 million in winnings.
Last week, the French gambling regulator said it was investigating whether Polymarket was complying with French laws.
(Reporting by Michelle Conlin; Editing by Lisa Shumaker)
