By Michelle Conlin
NEW YORK (Reuters) -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 New York Post first reported.
The FBI and Department of Justice 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,” said a Polymarket spokesperson.
The company told Reuters Coplan had not been arrested or taken into custody.
In the run-up to the presidential election, the site gained widespread attention for the way it placed Trump’s odds high above those of Harris, when opinion polls had for months shown the race in a dead heat.
Polymarket, which does not allow trading in the U.S., also gained scrutiny after a mystery French trader made large bets on Trump winning the election.
The trader’s huge Polymarket bets came in tandem with a dramatic rise in Trump’s chances on the exchanges.
He walked away with more than $46 million in profit.
Last week, France’s gambling regulator said it was examining whether Polymarket complies with French laws.
(Reporting by Michelle Conlin in New YorkEditing by Lisa Shumaker and Matthew Lewis)
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