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Speaking to The New York Post, a source close to Polymarket CEO Shayne Coplan said the 26-year-old businessman hadn't been told why he was being investigated and branded a Wednesday raid of his home as a "grand political theater at its worst."
Polymarket became synonymous with the 2024 general election with its betting market taking in millions of dollars and proving more accurate than most polls. It showed President-Elect Donald Trump as the likely winner over Vice President Kamala Harris.
The site remained online as of Thursday morning.
Polymarket, founded in 2020 by Coplan, is an American financial exchange and the world's largest prediction market, headquartered on the Upper East Side of Manhattan, New York City and offering event contracts.
In January 2022, Polymarket was fined US$1.4 million by the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC), and received a cease and desist order for regulatory violations, after it failed to register as a Swap Execution Facility.
According to The New York Post the raid began at around 6 a.m. on Wednesday when Coplan was woken up and instructed to hand over a number of electrical devices. Newsweek contacted the FBI press office and Polymarket for comment on Thursday via email outside of regular office hours.
The source close to Coplan said the FBI "staged a so-called raid so they can leak it to the media and use it for obvious political reasons."
They added: "This is obvious political retribution by the outgoing administration against Polymarket for providing a market that correctly called the 2024 presidential election."
In an X post on Wednesday Coplan jokingly wrote: "New phone, who dis?"
He later added: "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.
