FBI Seizes Polymarket CEO's Phone, Electronics After Betting Platform Predicts Trump Win (nypost.com) 110
The FBI raided Polymarket CEO Shayne Coplan's Manhattan apartment, seizing his phone and electronic devices. A source close to the matter told The New York Post it was politically motivated due to Polymarket's successful prediction of Trump's election win. It's "grand political theater at its worst," the source said. "They could have asked his lawyer for any of these things. Instead, they staged a so-called raid so they can leak it to the media and use it for obvious political reasons."
Although no charges were filed, the raid has sparked controversy, with speculation of political retribution and concerns over potential market manipulation, as Polymarket faces scrutiny both in the U.S. and from French regulators. The New York Post reports: Coplan was not arrested and has not been charged, a Polymarket spokesperson told The Post on Wednesday evening. "Polymarket is a fully transparent prediction market that helps everyday people better understand the events that matter most to them, including elections," the rep said. "We charge no fees, take no trading positions, and allow observers from around the world to analyze all market data as a public good."
Coplan posted on X after his run-in with the feds: "New phone, who dis?" Polymarket does not allow trading in the US, though bettors can bypass the ban by accessing the site through VPN. The FBI's investigation comes a week after Coplan said Polymarket is planning to return to the US. [...] In 2022, the online gambling platform was forced to pause its trading in the US and pay a $1.4 million penalty to settle charges with the Commodity Futures Trading Commission that it had failed to register with the agency. [In France, regulators are investigating Polymarket's compliance with national gambling laws, with concerns about unauthorized gambling activities within the country.] A Fortune report published a week before the election found widespread evidence of wash-trading on Polymarket. "Polymarket's Terms of Use expressly prohibit market manipulation," a Polymarket spokesperson told Fortune in a statement.
Although no charges were filed, the raid has sparked controversy, with speculation of political retribution and concerns over potential market manipulation, as Polymarket faces scrutiny both in the U.S. and from French regulators. The New York Post reports: Coplan was not arrested and has not been charged, a Polymarket spokesperson told The Post on Wednesday evening. "Polymarket is a fully transparent prediction market that helps everyday people better understand the events that matter most to them, including elections," the rep said. "We charge no fees, take no trading positions, and allow observers from around the world to analyze all market data as a public good."
Coplan posted on X after his run-in with the feds: "New phone, who dis?" Polymarket does not allow trading in the US, though bettors can bypass the ban by accessing the site through VPN. The FBI's investigation comes a week after Coplan said Polymarket is planning to return to the US. [...] In 2022, the online gambling platform was forced to pause its trading in the US and pay a $1.4 million penalty to settle charges with the Commodity Futures Trading Commission that it had failed to register with the agency. [In France, regulators are investigating Polymarket's compliance with national gambling laws, with concerns about unauthorized gambling activities within the country.] A Fortune report published a week before the election found widespread evidence of wash-trading on Polymarket. "Polymarket's Terms of Use expressly prohibit market manipulation," a Polymarket spokesperson told Fortune in a statement.
You don't ask someone for their phone (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:You don't ask someone for their phone (Score:4, Insightful)
Actually, common sense would be that if your business is doing something that's illegal in the United States, you shouldn't be in the United States. Ideally, he wouldn't be in a country with an extradition treaty either, although those don't typically tend to be the nicest places to live.
If it's one thing life has taught me (Score:1, Offtopic)
This is why humanity needs to be a social species. We are dumb as a bag of rocks and we all need to work together to cover up each other's shortcomings and stupidity.
Unfortunately we've become obsessed with individuality lately and this sort of rugge
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Careful what you wish for. Stupid people getting together is also how you get Nazis and the USSR.
Globalization and technological advancement won't remove the witch burners, it simply allows them to operate at a bigger scale, that's all.
Trump concentration camps (Score:1)
He won't be able to deport all those immigrants. So he's going to either turn them into death camps like the Nazis did or start leasing them out as slaves like Alabama does with it's prisoners.
If you think you're having a hard time competing with illegal immigrants now wait until they are literal actual slaves.
Re: You don't ask someone for their phone (Score:5, Informative)
When I read 29 million, it was immediately clear you've ben drinking the coolaid. See below.
These statements are made not just to attack political enemies, but to say "see, their side is doing the same!" and so people from voting for her, but also from getting upset about their corrupt leadership.
"Ocasio-Cortezâ(TM)s most recent financial disclosure, filed in 2021, shows she had between $3,003 and $45,000 in assets, including her 401k pension plan, and owed at least $15,000 in student debts. Despite this, inaccurate posts circulating on social media and articles have claimed that Ocasio-Cortez has a net worth of $29 million. Most of these cite as their source an article on CAknowledge.com, a website that previously made unsubstantiated claims - debunked by Reuters - about the income of Jen Psaki. The CAknowledge article, entitled âoeAlexandria Ocasio-Cortez Net Worth 2022 (Forbes) AOC Assets Salary Cars House,â does not state its source of information, other than the reference to Forbes in the title. While Forbes regularly releases the estimated net worth of high-profile individuals, there is no online record of it doing so for Ocasio-Cortez âoeForbes has not reported, nor can we confirm the net worth of Alexandria Ocasio- Cortez at this time,â Jocelyn Swift, director of corporate communications at Forbes told Reuters by email.â(TM)"
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Estimated by whom? And how good have their prior estimations been - given you believed the $29 million claim that your judgment on the trustworthiness of sources seems a little suspect. https://disclosures-clerk.hous... [house.gov] is just a little short of a million dollars.
She hasn't filed the form that isn't due for another 6 months. That speaking volumes to you says more about you than her. Have you filed your 2024 taxes yet? Those are due sooner - I certainly haven't, difficult to file information for a year that
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If you just believe everything you see on the internet that confirms your preconceived ideas and ignore all the information that contradicts it then you aren't really "looking" it are you?
https://www.politifact.com/fac... [politifact.com]
Re:You don't ask someone for their phone (Score:4, Insightful)
If you're a small-minded, petty, soon-to-be-unemployed group of bureaucrats, you stage a raid on the CEO. Just call this what it is: a last-ditch tantrum from the current administration.
As opposed to the convicted felon who has stated he will use the power of big government to go after anyone who said a mean thing about him as well as anyone in the news media who reported his own words?
How does this company exist? (Score:1)
They take no fees, so who covers the bets?
What I like about Trump voters (Score:3, Insightful)
It's the same thing that happened with brexit where people thought cooler heads would prevail and that they could play edgy weirdo and vote for dangerous and stupid things.
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I wonder how many authoritarian-curious Trump voters are going to have pregnancy challenges in the next four years.
Re: What I like about Trump voters (Score:2)
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That does explain the bizarre elevation of Matt Gaetz...
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He's the surrogate for Trump's friend, Epstein.
Re: What I like about Trump voters (Score:4, Insightful)
> I love the daily TDS salt. It is delicious
If that's a highlight of your day, you don't have anything else going on in your life.
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There were no facts in this thread, just spewing. Your girl lost. Badly. The voters rejected your entire worldview. It hurts. A lot. We get it. But you'll survive. You won't be put in Gilead. I promise. It'll only be 12 years of Trump/Vance, during which time your team should consider why a majority of people from almost every demographic shifted right resulting in a thorough drubbing in the election. Until you figure that out you'll keep getting plastered.
Don't be mad. Change.
That could be a couple of things (Score:2)
It's also possible he's just a red herring meant to be shot down and make his real pick seem more moderate and less crazy.
Finally, Gaetz was facing an ethics investigation and he has enemies in the GOP who were going to go through with it. This might have just been a way for him to resign without anyone noticing it was because of the investigation.
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Yeah, there's a whole elaborate story about the "timing" of his resignation. I have a feeling the ethics committee is going to release their report anyway.
I doubt that TCF is sophisticated enough for a plan as elaborate as 'pick the pedo so the next guy doesn't seem so bad'. Besides, when has he ever cared about anything other than flattery and media attention? Venmo Matt makes headlines, but they all start with 'T'.
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But one of the consequences of the abortion ban is that the amount of vasectomies has risen.
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Jesus Christ you fucks are breeding?
Re: What I like about Trump voters (Score:1)
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I meant you and your "wife" not righties in general.
I don't know if they will crack down immediately (Score:2)
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Physically forced?
Enjoy your insanity.
Do you feel another urge to scream profanity your car?
Re: You don't ask someone for their phone (Score:1)
Re:You don't ask someone for their phone (Score:5, Insightful)
Did you not watch the trial coverage? There was evidence, lots of it, and Trump wasn't even denying most of it and instead turning the trial into a platform to campaign during recess. What defendant spends an entire trial insulting the judge and the judge's family in the hopes that they get a better outcome? Prosecutors were looking into Trump long before the 2016 election cycle.
There was even a theory that the big reason he got into the race, suspecting that he would lose, was that it might give him legal cover. And guess, what it did!
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There was evidence, lots of it, and Trump wasn't even denying most of it and instead turning the trial into a platform to campaign during recess.
It's more than that. As you said, he never denied any of it. He was admitting he committed the crimes, but was saying he should be allowed to do it [tumblr.com].
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What was the crime? Please remind us.
The crimes where he misrepresented campaign contributions as expenses... you know.... bribe money. Also, highly overvaluing assets for loans but undervaluing for taxes. I mean, people do that.. sure. But there's a big difference between fluffing your assets 5 or 10% versus 200%
Did you forget about the classified documents? I mean come on... this is kindergarten level at this point.
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Multiple trials here, getting mushed together. The real estate thing was a civil matter not criminal, involving fraudulent loan applications, greatly overvaluing his asset's values. Whereas the hush money case was about altering business records in order to hide hush money payments which was done in order to violate state and national election laws. It can be hard to distinguish them because it was mostly the same team of inept defense lawyers and the same behavior of treating each court recess as a pres
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There was even a theory that the big reason he got into the race, suspecting that he would lose, was that it might give him legal cover. And guess, what it did!
The time line of events makes that theory much more likely.
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Did you not watch the trial coverage?
I did, and it was clear that it was a trial based on a novel (as in never attempted before or since) theory that turned misdemeanor charges into felonies. It was also filed in jurisdiction that guaranteed conviction regardless of the evidence purely on Trump's name. They would have sentenced him for execution for jaywalking if they could find a way.
Was Trump wrong to misfile expenses? Yes, absolutely. Is it just to prosecute him with felonies in NY over it? Absolutely not.
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No, it was not a novel theory. Committing a misdemeanor for the purposes of a second crime can turn either the first or second crime into a felony, and it's not unique to New York. The misdemeanor becoming a felony is party of the hush-money case with the porn star. Paying hush money is not a crime. Falsifying business records regarding hush money payments is a misdemeanor. However falsifying business records in order to further another crime is a felony, in New York at least. This is not a novel theory.
Re: You don't ask someone for their phone (Score:1)
You mean the prosecutors that when their case was heard at oral argument in September basically begged the appellate judges not to sanction them? That court case?
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You mean the prosecutors that when their case was heard at oral argument in September basically begged the appellate judges not to sanction them? That court case?
No, the case where all 12 jurors unanimously decided a guilty verdict on all 34 counts [tumblr.com], including the one juror who stated they only got their news [imgur.com] from the convicted felon's failing web site.
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34 counts of what exactly? What was the underlying crime? Recording legal fees this way or that in private books which had no impact on anyone and were magically raised up to felonies from stacked misdemeanors ?
That huge omg, he should be frog walked crime?
Sure buddy, look, your girl lost. It's how politics works. Your team took their best shot (literally with a rifle) and still lost. You did all you could. Now you and the rest of the western world will have to suffer through 12 more years of no new w
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Do... do you not know what appellate courts are?
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The smell of Kool-aid is strong in this one.
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Well, if he ends up getting charged with anything, there's always asking Trump for a pardon. Maybe he'd actually do it, because you know, birds of a feather and all that.
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Well, if he ends up getting charged with anything ...
Whether he is charged or not, his business has been disrupted and his life turned upside down.
The police have plenty of ways to punish people without bothering to charge them.
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If you are concerned about illegal betting, you seize servers and interrogate the engineers.
If you're a small-minded, petty, soon-to-be-unemployed group of bureaucrats, you stage a raid on the CEO. Just call this what it is: a last-ditch tantrum from the current administration.
Why wouldn't they do BOTH?
Inconvenience the CEO and hurt his business is how the petty would roll
If they're not going to be around, even better to "forget" where the servers were stored.
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Nah. The thing with the servers is that the FBI have probably tried to directly place a et and it failed, meaning that there will likely be no evidence that they are not blocking US IPs.
However if Americans are doing it via a VPN then whats interestsing to the FBI is if Polymarket execs are encouraging that or are aware of it and not intervening. THAT is likely what they are looking for.
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It's the cigarette companies marketing to kids thing.
That's illegal. Wink, wink.
The fact is, our legal system does work- and plausible deniability will get you out of a lot of really ugly shit you do at the corporate level.
Now, if they think they can bust you talking about how you're just putting up a smokescreen to hide your real target... you're cooked. Hence, you go for the communications devices.
No that's not what you do (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:You don't ask someone for their phone (Score:5, Insightful)
What, you believe the lame excuse that it's political? That's what they all say, especially when the guy you support is big on pardoning felons.
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Fuck it. Why fight it. Go get some brawndo, let's water some fucking plants, Cletus.
Interesting wording in that headline... (Score:5, Informative)
Leave it to the rag called "NY Post" to create a sensationall headline for a nothingburger story.
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They had a warrant to seize the dude's phone, because they convinced a judge they had probable cause to believe there was evidence of him breaking the law on it.
Nothing- repeat after me- nothing about that means they're close to, or have to be close to, filing charges.
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Trump might not pardon if there's nothing in it for him. Is Giuliani going to get a pardon? Probably not, because Trump ignored those legal woes, didn't even mention Rudy during the campaign. Old friend, no longer useful, no longer worth bothering about...
Interesting wording: Wash trading (Score:3, Informative)
The charges stem from illegal betting, and have nothing to do with the election per se
Illegal betting would be unlikely to interest the FBI; that would be a state crime, not a federal one.
But the article said there was "widespread evidence of wash-trading on Polymarket." So, the purported malfeasance that the FBI was looking into was probably money laundering.
("wash trading" [investopedia.com] would be when you buy and sell at the same time, so the transaction cancels out. Wash trades never make economic sense, but if you report only the income, not the expense, money that you got illegally can look like legal
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...thinking about it a little more, the other reason you'd do wash trading is to manipulate the market-- buy a thousand shares at a penny, sell them to yourself for a dime, and you've pumped the price so you can dump other shares and profit. So that could be what the FBI was looking for.
That would also be a federal crime.
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In this case, you cant sell to yourself even if you wanted to. You buy and sell through the market, not through hand selected otherfolk.
Its like thinking you can repeated sell yourself your own iPhone for $MAGICNUMBER and somehow that will effect the price other people buy and sell iPhones for. They dont know or care that you did it, dumbfuck.
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You cant alter the market by selling your own things to yourself, for any price.
You apparently don't know how stock markets work.
Only a trivial effect unless the trading volume is relatively low, of course. And you lose the trading fee. But if you happen to own the exchange, that comes back to you too.
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What do you think the price of a stock is?
Do you think some panel of experts decides what a share of TSLA will be worth today?
Or might it be whatever the price was of the most recent trade of that stock - you know by people selling them.
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I assume the pile of money piques their interest more than the crime itself.
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The charges stem from illegal betting, and have nothing to do with the election per se (although that site was heavily promoted on Twitter). Sure it was part of the betting, but it could have also been who Taylor Swift is going to marry. Illegal betting is illegal regardless of what's being bet upon.
What charges would those be?
"Coplan was not arrested and has not been charged, a Polymarket spokesperson told The Post on Wednesday evening."
In fact the nature of the betting matters very much for whether it is legal. A federal court had ruled in September [axios.com] that prediction markets outside the scope of commodities (such as for elections) could not be regulated under the delegated authority of the CFTC.
Polymarket is also not based in the US and - unless they changed recently based on that ruling - has geobloc
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And a reflexive dismissal is probably not warranted given we just got confirmation from FEMA [fema.gov] that one of their directors ordered relief efforts to avoid homes with Trump signs (and that director is now claiming that she was just following standard operating procedure).
A lot of this post was good.
But then this happened.
The woman in question was not a director. She was an Emergency Management Specialist.
Further, she was ratted out practically immediately by the crews that the memo was issued to.
She is now claiming that she was just doing what everyone else was doing, and yet... somehow... no other crews have blown the whistle about this?
Reflexive dismissals may be wrong, but you have demonstrated a pretty surprising lack of critical thinking in the evaluation of thi
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If no one gives a shit about her title, why did you make up a title for her that sounds more important than her actual role?
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Leave it to the rag called "NY Post" to create a sensationall headline for a nothingburger story.
Yes, this is absolutely true. The New York Post is a frankly partisan newspaper; they're very explicit about the fact that they represent a certain political view, there's no pretense of "objectivity" with them. Their headlines, in particular, are never written in neutral language.
I almost have to admire the headline they wrote here; it manages to be 100% factually accurate (the FBI raid did in fact take place after they predicted Trump's win), but at the same time, it's 100% misleading (since it suggests
Not the election results, US citizens betting (Score:5, Informative)
Now they get raided for allowing US citizens to bet in an unregulated market and cry foul about how it's political persecution before Trump takes office (after saying they'd allow US citizens back in when Trump takes office [cnbc.com]).
You can argue over whether or not such betting should be regulated. They fucked around and they found out, and judging by this raid, they almost certainly knew that US citizens were betting contrary to the law on Polymarket, and the FBI was aware of this and took the cell phone as evidence under probable cause/warrant.
Either Polymarket is vindicated or it isn't, they will have their day in court.
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I recently visited my broker's (IB) site and they're promoting a new service "Trade Your Predictions on Political, Economic, and Climate Events".
Sounds exactly like what Polymarket is doing, I wonder what the difference is, other than potentially the crypto.
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Article I, Section 8, Clause 3
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The commerce clause
https://www.law.cornell.edu/wex/commerce_clause
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Yeah, I'd post as AC too if my comment was that stupid.
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do you support the idea that a farmer selling corn that he bought, grew, harvested, processed, and sold all in Iowa should be subjected to federal regulations
Yes. I like my food inspected and safe. What is it with you plague rats and taking stupid and unnecessary risks?
Username checked out. Maybe you should post AC?
Got em' (Score:1)
Couldn't he have predicted it? (Score:4, Funny)
The FBI raided Polymarket CEO Shayne Coplan's Manhattan apartment, seizing his phone and electronic devices.
After getting the election results right, you'd think he'd have been ready for this.
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you'd think he'd have been ready for this.
Maybe he was? The news report says that he was raided Not that they found anything on him.
It's not like a CEO can hide from the FBI or prevent a raid if they're investigating you.
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Good point - guess he had to give them something to find.
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It's just like how the Psychic Friends didn't see their bankruptcy coming!
See, one way to not feed conspiracy trolls is (Score:1)
to not do shady shit for all to see in the first place. Cuz then any time you *do* need to take in some high profile suspect, there's no record of you having done politically motivated shit in the past that people can point to to diminish your credibility.
This is known as "maintaining public trust." And it is a continual effort. Too many people in to many positions of authority in too many important institutions seem to treat public trust as a license rather than as a responsibility.
This is almost always a
The process is the punishment (Score:2)
Slashdot turning into a tabloid rag (Score:2)
Seriously we're posting NY Post stories now? What next? Daily Mail? Oh fuck why don't we just sell the platform to Alex Jones while we're at it.
This garbage does not belong here, regardless if it is right or not. NY Post has no business being on Slashdot anywhere other than -1 Troll comments where it belongs. Find a decent source or don't post.
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Here's a few alternatives, including WSJ.
https://ground.news/article/fb... [ground.news]
.. political retribution.. Really? (Score:4)
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