FBI Raids Polymarket CEO’s NYC Home, Seizes Electronics

The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) headquarters in Washington, on Aug. 12, 2024. Madalina Vasiliu/The Epoch Times

Federal law enforcement agents raided the downtown New York City 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 the 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 for the company 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 X that he was using a new phone.

“It’s discouraging that the current administration would seek a last-ditch effort to go after companies they deem to be associated with political opponents. We are deeply committed to being non-partisan, and today is no different, but the incumbents should do some self-reflecting and recognize that taking a more pro-business, pro-startup approach may be what would have changed their fate this election,” he wrote in another post.

“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 well above Harris’s, while 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 six battleground states—Arizona, Georgia, Michigan, Nevada, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin—that President Joe Biden 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 does not allow U.S.-based Internet Protocol addresses to access the site, under a settlement with the Commodity Futures Trading Commission. Derivatives trading platform Kalshi is currently allowed to offer contracts enabling Americans to legally bet on elections after courts rejected attempts by the commission to block it from doing so.

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.

Reuters contributed to this report.